Aaron Judge provides some context on Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s postgame comments after he was left out of the Yankees' lineup in their Game 1 meeting with the Red Sox.
Aaron Judge had not yet seen the video of Jazz Chisholm Jr. or read his quotes. But he is the captain of the Yankees, the video was already blazing a path around the digital universe, and I wanted Judge’s thoughts so that I could finalize mine.
He knows better than any of us how a development plays in the clubhouse. His opinion and context are far more valuable here than mine.
Like Aaron Boone’s decision to remove Max Fried in the Yankees’ 3-1 loss to Boston in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series (totally defensible; we’ll get to that later), Chisholm’s cameo seemed sure to be a major talking point for the next day.
“I haven’t seen it,” Judge said, politely and truthfully.
Here was the briefing: Chisholm did not start because Boone used a right-heavy lineup against Boston’s left-handed ace, Garrett Crochet. Amed Rosario started at second. Chisholm replaced him on defense in the eighth.
After the game, as reporters waited in the middle of the clubhouse for Fried to speak, Chisholm walked to his locker. Reporters and cameras operators followed.
Asked if he was surprised that he wasn’t starting, Chisholm turned his back to the group, fiddled with the plastic hangers in the locker and said, “I mean, I guess, yeah.”
Another reporter followed up by asking if he and Boone had a conversation about it.
“It’s a little conversation, not much,” Chisholm said. “But yeah. You just move forward after it.”
Chisholm is a nice guy. His tone remained mild. But his body language and words were not a good fit for the internet and its desire for controversy. He should have known better than to risk a stir with his team already facing elimination (that’s my take, not Judge’s).
Whatever the nuances, it seemed that, between the Jazz interview and the Fried decision, the Yankees were about to get roasted for their drama.
Standing at his locker after his postgame scrum, Judge considered all this.
Speaking of the Chisholm situation, he said, “It will cause some drama on the outside, but in here we’ll definitely be good. Inside this clubhouse, we’re all good. We’re pulling for each other. We’ll be good. There’s always a storm on the outside -- but we can’t work that way.”
Judge suggested that he would handle the situation internally, but did not make it sound as if it would be a major crisis or cleanup.
The weird part about Chisholm’s postgame performance was that I’d spoken to a Yankees person (not Boone) before the game and asked how Jazz had taken the news. That person said that Boone had communicated effectively, and that Chisholm had taken it well and was in a good place.
After the game, a few other Yankee people said that Chisholm was not acting angry behind the scenes. Perhaps he was embarrassed, and didn’t want to talk about the manager’s decision, those people speculated. Chisholm remains a popular teammate. This did not feel like a five-alarm fire.
Before any of this happened, it seemed that tomorrow's discourse would involve Boone’s Fried decision. That one was actually fairly straightforward: according not only to Boone but to scouts watching the game (one in person, one on television), Fried looked tired in the sixth inning.
In that frame, he induced a groundout, issued a walk and got out of it with a ground ball double play. His velocity was fine, but when a pitcher begins to tire, it’s not the velocity that goes -- it’s the command.
“I felt like his command was not as good those final few [innings],” Boone said. “He was making so many big pitches and his stuff was good. Look, he gave us what we needed and felt really good about the outing he put forth. But I felt pretty convicted, especially when we got the double play. Let's go get one more hitter and be good.”
In the dugout after the inning, Boone asked Fried if he could get that one more hitter, lefty Jarren Duran. Fried said yes. He did not say, “Let me get the next few guys, too.” He is a grown-up, and self-aware. He was just about done.
"I definitely exerted a lot of energy trying to get out of that, but I definitely had enough in the tank for whatever the team needed,” Fried said.
An observation about Fried, earned from covering the team this season: As a first-year New Yorker, he is excessively careful with his public comments. He is always trying to walk a line that avoids any whiff of controversy.
He is still learning how to execute that strategy. If it sounded like he was criticizing Boone’s decision -- well, I’m almost certain that he wasn’t. He was just trying to get out of there without creating a headline one way or the other.
Chisholm, at least, took care of that for him.
On to tomorrow.
Category: General Sports
