Marlins Veteran Picks Up Offense After Arraez Trade
In the midst of an awful 9-24 start, the Miami Marlins waved the white flag on 2024.
Earlier this month, the team traded leadoff man and reigning NL batting title winner Luis Arraez to the San Diego Padres for a four-player package, one that’s been panned by several across baseball (including the staff here at Inside the Marlins).
But there has been some positive impacts from the deal, and one of those has been the installation of Jazz Chisholm Jr. as the team’s leadoff hitter. Batting first in all but two of the post-Arraez games (Dane Myers batted leadoff in the first game without Arraez and again one week later), Chisholm is hitting .302/.362/.465 with a homer, a triple, two doubles, seven runs, three RBI, and three stolen bases.
Across his 347-game major league career, Chisholm’s spent the most games in the leadoff spot, with 143 games and 622 plate appearances, and has performed to a .249/.302/.440 clip with 36 homers and 32 stolen bases.
He’s admitted to having a different mindset from the top of the order: “I feel like I approach it a little bit differently,” said Chisholm to MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola. “When I'm in the leadoff spot, I'm a little bit more aggressive trying to just get the game rolling and get it playing and getting us off with a bang. I feel like when I'm in the four-hole or three-hole, I'm more passive because I want to get the right pitch and do this and help my team, because that's what three- and four-hole guys are. They're supposed to be the guys that can hit and see everything and do it the right way.”
Chisholm’s OPS from the leadoff spot in .742 in his career and an absurd .827 this season, signs that the different approach is potentially a more impactful one for the offensively-challenged club.
Miami has gone 5-8 since moving Arraez to San Diego and is 5-6 with Chisholm at the top of the order.
Those two starts for Meyers at leadoff coincide with lefty starters on the mound (Oakland’s JP Sears and Philly’s Ranger Suárez), something manager Skip Schumaker admitted was in his lineup plans at the time of the trade, but the skipper’s happy with what Chisholm can do for the team from the top of the order. “I think he's comfortable in that position,” Schumaker said. “He likes leading off, he likes being the guy to set the tone, and he's been doing a good job ever since we put him up there. I think Jazz is a really good leadoff hitter. We had the best leadoff hitter [in Arraez], in my opinion. He was traded. So now, we put Jazz up there who loves to hit leadoff, and I think that's a really good option.”
"Don't take this the wrong way, but we are already on no-hitter alert. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, before he throws a single pitch tonight against the Marlins."
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 8, 2024
Miami's Jazz Chisholm takes the first pitch deep.
Efficient announcer jinx from Greg Amsinger.pic.twitter.com/y7WShpXKMo
Managing Editor for Blackerby Media, covering the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins Also: Senior Baseball Writer for Auburn Daily, member of both the National College Baseball Writers Association and Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (where he won the 2023 Prospects, Minors, & College Writer of the Year award)