Yankees move Jazz Chisholm back to second base, bench DJ LeMahieu

New York Post

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00:00Jazz Chisholm Jr. is headed back to his happy place.

00:03By now you know the news.

00:04Aaron Boone has announced that the All-Star is headed back to second base

00:08and he's going to start there tonight against the Mariners.

00:10Greg Joyce is on ahead of tonight's game to talk about the move

00:13and what it's going to mean for DJ LeMayhew.

00:16Greg, thanks for hopping on with us, man.

00:18They start this series tonight, but here's the news that broke the internet.

00:23Jazz is going back to second.

00:24Oswal Peraza goes to third.

00:26But about a week ago, Aaron Boone said that he kind of had no plans

00:30of making the switch.

00:31So what led to the change?

00:34Yeah, I don't know if he'll ever get the full story,

00:37but I think it's probably a combination of things.

00:39Obviously, Jazz sat out Sunday's game,

00:42revealed that he's been dealing with his sore shoulder

00:44over the last couple weeks.

00:46He said it's not an excuse for some of the throws he'd had from third base

00:49that turned into errors, but I think it bakes into it a little bit.

00:53But, you know, he obviously wasn't his sharpest at third base.

00:58He's more comfortable at second.

00:59That's his, you know, where he trained all offseason,

01:02all spring training, and had a good start there to the season.

01:05And obviously when he came back from the IAL, DJ LeMayhew was there.

01:08But it seemed like he was headed in this direction at some point.

01:12I thought it might not be until the trade deadline

01:13because, you know, they're in the market for a third baseman

01:17or a second baseman, which is really, you know,

01:20some of the reasoning why they had moved Jazz to third

01:22just to kind of give them some extra flexibility

01:24and, you know, what they could acquire before the deadline.

01:28But it just, you know, I think a number of things,

01:31this tough stretch here, you know, more and more,

01:33it was pretty obvious that they were kind of shooting themselves

01:37in the foot a little bit by having Jazz at third and DJ at second.

01:41DJ just doesn't have the range at second that he once did.

01:44And Jazz had some errors and mistakes at third.

01:47So, you know, combine that with the shoulder,

01:51trying to get them out of this, you know, a rough stretch here.

01:54You know, a week, this is the last week before the All-Star break,

01:57and then you come out of that and it's the trade deadline.

02:00So I think a number of things.

02:02But it seemed like it was headed this way.

02:04You know, Boone kind of hedged on it last week, like you said.

02:06It kind of left the door open for it to happen.

02:10It was just a matter of when.

02:12So it seems like it's the right decision.

02:13It's kind of a long time coming.

02:15But, yeah, it's one of those that the more you watch,

02:18the more you just knew it needed to change.

02:21So since we don't have that much time before the deadline

02:23or they don't have that many games before the deadline,

02:26is Peraza, is he auditioning for the starting job full-time?

02:30Or do you think no matter how well he plays,

02:33Brian Cashman is still going to go after a proven third baseman?

02:37Yeah, I think they're still going to go after a third baseman.

02:39Peraza's gotten, you know, a handful of chances of, you know,

02:43a runway to see what he can do in the big leagues.

02:45And it just hasn't happened, at least offensively.

02:47He's an incredibly talented defender no matter where you put him in the infield.

02:52And every now and then he'll show you something on the plate,

02:54but he just hasn't been able to do much, you know,

02:57consistently when he's gotten those chances.

02:59So we'll see how much he plays at third base between the split between,

03:03you know, him and DJ LeMahieu.

03:04But I think he's, you know, either way,

03:07it's just kind of a stopgap here in the last few weeks until the deadline

03:10when they hope that they can acquire a third baseman.

03:14Obviously, it's, you know,

03:16their deadline plans got a little bit more complicated over the weekend

03:19when they found out that Clark Schmidt needed Tommy John surgery.

03:22So now you add a, you know, they have to,

03:24it looks like they're going to have to try to acquire a proven starter too

03:27to add to the rotation, even with Luis Hila coming back next month.

03:30Obviously they need some bullpen help as it was exposed over the last couple

03:34of weeks when they've had some injuries and run a couple of guys into the

03:37ground, just with a long stretch of games here.

03:39So, you know, their shopping list got a little bit longer, but I think,

03:42you know, third base is right up near the top of what they need to add

03:46before the July 31st deadline.

03:47All right.

03:48So it looks like Brian Cashman is going to have to earn that check before

03:51or at the deadline, but million dollar question here.

03:54What does this mean for DJ LeMahieu on the longterm?

03:57I know he's headed to the bench tonight,

03:59but how is all of this going to affect what his future is with the club?

04:06Yeah, we'll see.

04:06I, you know, over the last couple of months,

04:08it kind of seemed like that trade deadline was the kind of might be a kind

04:13of inflection point for him to, to kind of, you know,

04:15it seemed like he had until that day to show them what he had left in the tank,

04:18you know, coming back from the IL, obviously defensively,

04:22he doesn't have the range that he once did, but you know,

04:25offensively he's actually been a pretty solid bat over the last month.

04:28I think he's hitting over 300 and shot just over 300 since June 1st,

04:34obviously not a lot of slugging there.

04:36I think it's only two home runs, but you know, it's a serviceable bat.

04:39It's just a matter of, you know,

04:42can you keep that up if and when you move him to the bench?

04:45The other thing is, you know, if they add an infielder,

04:49then you would think either that, you know,

04:51that forces out either LeMahieu or Peraza but Peraza can back up shortstop to

04:56give Anthony Vopey a spell when needed. You know,

04:59so Peraza has that defensive versatility more.

05:02So we'll see on DJ, he turns 37 this month.

05:06He's still got $15 million left on his contract after this year.

05:09It's, it's one more year and 15 million after this season. So, you know,

05:14it's, it's been kind of a long time coming to,

05:16to figure out what you do with it. You know,

05:19it's kind of always seemed like he may not play all the way through the end of

05:23that contract with the Yankees at least. But we'll see, you know,

05:26depending on what kind of a bat that, you know,

05:29what kind of third baseman they can acquire,

05:31do they keep DJ on the bench as a, as a right-handed bat to, you know,

05:35play occasionally and be a pinch hit guy. We'll see.

05:39But it's obviously something to watch here over the next couple of weeks.

05:41And obviously depending on what they can do with the trade deadline.

05:45All right, Greg Joyce. Thanks, my man. Thanks for your time.

05:48You got it. Thanks, Brandon.

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