Trust Jazz Chisholm to take on the opponents in the most savage way possible. From taking a jibe to the ones doubting him for using earphones on the field to hitting a homer straight to the rival fans booing him, Chisholm has mastered the art of giving it back. Tuesday witnessed Chisholm silencing the Progressive Field with his 9th homer of the season and not stopping there. After the game, Chisholm decided to get under the skin of the Cleveland Guardians fans.

“I love it. Kind of. I feel like that was the loudest chant all day we heard, so I think it was great,” Chisholm said.

Chisholm was welcomed to the field with “overrated” chants from the Guardians fans, and it didn’t miss the targeted ears. Chisholm entered the plate in the eighth with the score tied 2-2. It was the perfect moment for Chisholm to take the game away amid the chants. He chose to embrace the chants and admitted that those “overrated” chants pumped him up a bit, so he overswung in the fifth and struck out.

The error was not repeated in the eighth. Jazz Chisholm fell behind 0-2 off the Guardians’ reliever, Tim Herrin. But the next pitch was a slider, and Chisholm sent it through the upper corner of the strike zone for a 360-foot homer to right field. The New York Yankees scored their third, and the scoreboard stayed 3-2 till the last. But Chisholm was not done.

As he successfully silenced the crowd, he made sure to soak in every second of the moment. He ran slowly around the bases, looking at the fans. “Yeah, it was really for the fans,” Chisholm admitted.

While it was his first go-ahead homer in the eighth inning or later since 2022 with the Marlins, the hit had another significance. It came with Aaron Judge’s wood. According to Jazz Chisholm, after overswinging and failing in the first 3 at-bats, he decided to go with Judge’s bat, and for the second consecutive time, Chisholm scored a homer off his captain’s bat.

Even if Aaron Judge is not playing, his wood is making sure that the Yankees’ scoreboard remains active.

Chisholm’s act on Tuesday made us recall Pete Crow-Armstrong’s similar act against the St. Louis Cardinals early this month. PCA silenced a rowdy St. Louis crowd by blasting a 444-foot home run directly into the “Tarps Off” section of shirtless fans in right field. The taunting fans had spent the game chanting “overrated” at him. Certainly, these are the players who shouldn’t be pumped up by the rival fans.

However, the question remains about Chisholm’s future with the Yankees.

Jazz Chisholm is rumored to end his Yankees connection

Since he entered his rental year, rumor mills are buzzing with his probable extension offer from the Yankees. Insiders even blamed his uncertain future with the Yankees for affecting his numbers early last month. “Three for his last 23, 11 strikeouts. His WAR this year, (minus)-0.3. His negative war on the season, which is so important to him because he’s a free agent in the fall, I think it’s absolutely weighing on him,” MLB insider Buster Olney noted.

That time, Chisholm was batting .201/.281/.322 with 4 HRs, but he steadily pushed the gas pedal, picking up another 5 homers in between. This time, Chisholm is projected to decline any qualifying offers. “If Jazz is back to being Jazz, his poor April probably won’t matter much. He’s a clear candidate to receive and reject a qualifying offer in that scenario, and the associated draft pick cost might cause some teams to shy away,” MLB Trade Rumors predicted.

Typically, second basemen earn less on average in MLB as their traditional offensive requirements are lower, and the position relies less on the “spine” defensive value. So, if the Yankees follow the market trend, Chisholm would likely decline the offer. His offense could have helped had he not started the year slowly. Let’s now see if the two stay together or not.