Yankees forced into an IMPOSSIBLE decision...

The New York Yankees are being forced into an impossible decision. Moving forwards is not only is the front office going to have to take a very long hard look at one of their key free agents this season, but with the recent emergence of one of their longer tenured players who's now been playing quite well, there's not only questions for the offseason, but questions for what Aaron Boone should be doing when the playoffs do begin for the New York Yankees. As we know, the Yankees have clinched the playoffs, which is obviously great news, as they set to try to make some miracle run to steal the American League East from the Tampa Bay Rays. But regardless, they're going to be in the playoffs and there's going to be tough decisions to make, especially when we look at the most likely scenario being them playing the Boston Red Sox, who would start Garrett Crochet on the first game of the playoff run, which really does raise questions and tell us exactly what the Yankees are going to be doing going forwards. And we are going to discuss all that real quick. Go ahead and subscribe to the channel right now. I don't know what I'm laughing at. 66% of viewers are not yet subscribed. It is completely free and we do have videos coming out every single day. Now guys, diving into the video, the Yankees, they are every single year they're injured. Every single year it feels like an injury is going on. And obviously this is the case with all baseball teams. There's so many players, people are going to get injured, but most of the Yankees offenses dealt with injuries at some point this season. There's only been a few guys who have been able to be healthy all year long. And really that just mainly stretches to Ben Risen and Luis Garcia Jr. since we acquired him. But Jazz Chisholm is one of the more recent guys to go down with an injury. Now, Jazz had a very weird season because the start of it and even a bit of the middle of it was not good offense, but the fielding was still the fielding that actually took a little bit of a slip. I think he was so in his head on his hitting, but his hitting started really, really poorly. And because of that, a lot of questions were raised regarding how Jazz is going to perform when he comes back. And also, how much should Brian Cashman be willing to pay on Jazz Chisholm? Well, Bleacher Report talked about that in further depth. As they did say, what does the future hold for Jazz Chisholm Jr.? Jazz Chisholm started off his contract year by declaring he hoped to join Shohei Otani in the 50-50 home club. Now, well, it's mid-September and Chisholm is currently on the injured list with the right thumbstring. He does have 40 stolen bases, but he's hit just 19 home runs. Now, on top of that, Bleacher Report also mentions, of course, no one, probably including Chisholm himself, actually thought he would go 50-50. But a year ago, he over 31 times and had an 813 OPS. He's regressed almost 100 points this year, the 715 OPS. If the Yankees extend a qualifying offer to Chisholm, which was worth $21 million last offseason, the 28-year-old would probably be wise to take it and hope for a rebound season in 2027. The Yankees also, it's important to note, and not that it hasn't paid off. Grisham's been very good in the clutch and has had good moments this season, but obviously was unable to really bring back that magic. And now the Yankees do have a logjam of outfielders, which makes the future kind of tough to figure out, even though we know Grish is leaving after this year. I don't even think the Yankees are going to really make enough big effort to resign him. But overall, it doesn't just stretch to that because we're not in the offseason yet. Some teams effectively are, but the Yankees aren't. They have to figure out what they want to do in the regular season for this. Look, obviously, yeah, Jazz Azir has not been great. The 50-50 thing was never going to happen. 50 home runs and 50 steals. 50 steals is actually still likely if he comes back and just starts robbing bases left and right. But I don't even think he's going to, I don't know if he's going to even get the at-bats. Does he have 31 more at-bats in him this season? Maybe, but also maybe not. Games-wise, yeah, it should be around that. But that's saying he's going to play every day. There's no guarantee that Jazz is going to play every day. I mean, on the year, he's had a .232 batting average and a .715 OPS. He has 40 stolen bases. And overall, he's been good. I mean, recently, he's definitely performed quite well. Even if you look at his last month of action when he was on the field, he was hitting with a .271 batting average. He had a .770 OPS. He was getting on base. He had some pop in the bat. He was doing all the right things that make you look at the baseball savant numbers and understand, okay, the hitting is not as bad as it seems here right now. Meanwhile, the fielding and the base running are still as good as ever. He's still one of the best fielders in baseball and is in the 98th percentile of base running this year. Jazz certainly has a lot to offer, but are they going to put him in an everyday role? If you guys recall last year, and I'm saying this not that it's a known fact, but most likely so, the Yankees will play the Red Sox in the wildcard division this season in New York. The exact same thing that they did, if you recall, because Gary Crochet will pitch. Jazz didn't play that game. He got benched. Him and Ben Rice got benched. Now, Ben Rice is not getting benched. No, sir. No shot at it. But now, Jazz, he's got Anthony Volpe playing his position right now. The Yankees love Volpe. In fact, Volpe hit a home run off of Gary Crochet. It was the only run the Yankees scored that game was off of a Volpe home run. It's hard to believe the Yankees are not going to put Volpe at second base that game. Maybe they don't. They're not putting him at short over George. So, that means he's playing second, if you ask me. I think Goldie will actually be out there. Maybe he plays first base. Maybe he DHs. I imagine Goldie's out there as well. It does make for an interesting conversation regarding Luis Garcia and Ben Rice. I don't really know if it's the right call to put Goldie out there, but there's a lot of metrics that says yes it is. But Volpe, it's more cut and dry. You just, you play him. He's been good. I mean, Anthony Volpe's done what he's been asked to since he's shown up and more. Over his last 10 games, he's hit a .286 batting average. He has 753 LPS. He's fielding well at second base. He's doing all the right things. I mean, honestly, I might play him too. We're being completely real with ourselves. It does certainly make sense and Gary Phillips did mention with Jazz Chisholm nearing his return, Aaron Boone was asked if he'll consider using Volpe at third base. We'll see, Boone said. First things first, getting Jazz back and then we'll figure out as the week unfolds how I want to play it. Volpe said the Yankees haven't talked about playing third base before the regular season ends, but that he felt comfy. There are a few times he's played third base in the minors, though there are questions about his arms that or about his arm strength that we certainly do need to be aware of. And Brian Hoke also did mention as far as Jazz goes, he's doing well and should be activated on the homestand. So we'll see soon. Are the Yankees going to put Jazz at third base? They have for smaller increments twice now. I mean, they did it for a longer period of time when they acquired Jazz and instantly threw him to third and Jazz said he was happy to do it because it meant he was playing winning baseball. Then when he got taken out of second base last season for DJ LeMay, you can believe it or not, that still is a thing that happened. Jazz was openly said that he wasn't happy about playing third base, but wasn't going to start any problems about it considering he just wants to play winning baseball. He wants to win, that he wants to do whatever is best for the team. Now, would that be what's best for the team? Probably. I mean, let's be real. He's not as good of a fielder at third base at all. But at the same time, he's got the arm to do it. I know his arm strength on Savant is not good this year, but he's got the arm strength to do it. And then at the same time, we look at this team and Brian McMahon has not been great this year. Ahmed Rosario has not been doing his job unless you're putting Jose Caballero at third base instead. And there's a chance the Yankees do put Caballero there. I don't know if they're going to want to do that because they might want him off the bench for a utility guy in case of pinch running situations. That's totally a possibility. But there's also a chance that they don't, I mean, play Jazz at all because they've already done that before. And honestly, if this keeps up, it wouldn't be shocking if Jazz kind of wanted to move on the Yankees after. I mean, we know how confident Jazz is in himself. He even said, talking about his teammates, they know I'm firm on confidence and that's the biggest thing. They were like, let's not forget who you are. You're the greatest in the world. You are Jazz Chisholm, which again, that's no shot at anyone. Every athlete says that at some sort of magnitude better than all these guys. I'm him. I just need to find my moment and I got this. So that is where almost all these guys are at. And because of that, it would make sense for the Yankees to try to figure out what they want to do with Jazz. But I will tell you this, over the homestand that they're going to have against the Rays, which they do see as their last chance to make some incredible, magical push into winning the American League as they have to sweep them, including winning two in a doubleheader. Frankly, it'll be very, very interesting to see what the Yankees do with Jazz as it'll be a telltale sign of what they do in the playoffs. Look out for lefty-righty matchups. The Rays will certainly have at least one lefty pitch in this series. So be ready to watch that, see what Jazz does if he's activated by then, if he plays, if he doesn't play. We'll know more and I'll be reporting on it. So make sure to be subscribed to this post notification to turn it on so you don't miss that video or any video. Like this video, subscribe, turn on post notifications. Have a great day, guys, and go Yankees.