NEW YORK — Jazz Chisholm Jr. is still having trouble wrapping his head around the severity of his oblique injury.
Speaking for the first time since landing on the injured list with a high-grade strain on Friday, the Yankees’ second baseman explained that his current oblique injury feels much better than what the MRI imaging on his side revealed.
“I’m very surprised,” Chisholm said after Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Rays. “This is the second time I’ve had an oblique [and] this feels completely different from the first one. For me, I was super surprised when I saw the results.”
Chisholm’s oblique is injured in three separate places. It happened during an at-bat in the first inning of Tuesday’s win over the Orioles in Baltimore. The left-handed hitter was checked by a trainer after a swing early in the plate appearance. He stayed in, doubled later in the at-bat, advanced to third base on an error and was promptly taken out of the game.
Initially, Chisholm insisted that he was fine and not concerned at all. In Baltimore, he referenced the time he tore his oblique with the Marlins a few years ago as proof that he would know if he had a serious injury.
Nonetheless, imaging showed that Chisholm did in fact suffer a high-grade strain in three separate spots. He’s now expected to be sidelined for the next four-to-six weeks. While, he’d love to be back sooner, the infielder recognized that the timeline manager Aaron Boone delivered on Friday is the normal average for someone working back from this type of injury.
“That’s what we’re planning on trying to get to, if not before,” he said.
In the meantime, Chisholm is able to continue working on strength training. It’s a day-to-day process moving forward where the Yankees will see how he’s doing and slowly increase the intensity of his workouts and eventually, he’ll reintroduce baseball activities.
That’s a long way away, though.
In his place, Jorbit Vivas is expected to play most games at second base moving forward. Vivas got a well-deserved bump back up to the Yankees as a result of Chisholm’s injury and he’s been in the starting lineup in each of the club’s last two games. He’s still on the hunt for his first big-league hit.
Chisholm has seven home runs this year with 17 RBI, but he’s hitting .181 with a .714 OPS. His strikeout rate (31.2 percent) and whiff rate (35.1) are among the worst in Major League Baseball through these first six-plus weeks of the regular season.
“Super frustrated,” Chisholm said. “I want to be out there every day and help my team win every day, so when I don’t get a chance to do that, it sucks.”
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Max Goodman may be reached at mgoodman@njadvancemedia.com.
