With Marlins’ acquisition of Luis Arraez, a position change is coming for Jazz Chisholm Jr.
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Jazz Chisholm Jr., an All-Star at second base last season, will be switching positions in 2023.
Marlins general manager Kim Ng on Friday said Chisholm will move from second base to center field following the team’s acquisition of Luis Arraez from the Minnesota Twins. Arraez, who won the American League batting title last season, will be the team’s primary second baseman.
“Jazz is very open-minded about it and sounded enthusiastic,” Ng said, “so that’s what we’re going to do.”
Chisholm has exclusively played second base or shortstop so far in his pro ball career. He played 200 of 207 games in the minor leagues at shortstop. In the big leagues, Chisholm has made 154 starts at second base and 37 at shortstop.
Chisholm only played in 60 games last season before being sidelined by a stress fracture in his lower back. He also played the 2022 season with a right meniscus injury sustained in spring training that required surgery.
Why move him to center field?
“I think Jazz is a very unique athlete,” Ng said. “He’s very dynamic. He’s got great range, great speed. A lot of things that you look for when you’re thinking about center field. We’ve seen him grow. We’ve seen how he handles pop ups and ranges to the ones that are tough to get to.”
Ng said the Marlins have discussed this move for “a while,” but the club was never “really pressed to think about it meaningfully until probably this offseason.” In addition to Chisholm and Arraez, Miami also has Joey Wendle, Jean Segura and Jon Berti as regular options to play second base, shortstop and third base. Wendle is expected to get heavy run at shortstop and Segura is slotted as the primary third baseman.
So when Miami finalized the trade for Arraez, one that sent Pablo Lopez and two prospects to the Twins, the logjam in the infield built up again.
“When this particular opportunity came up and we had some of these scenarios going on, it made us think about it harder,” Ng said. “Like I said, he’s pretty intrigued and interested in this situation as well, so that made it a lot easier.”
As for Arraez, he will also back up Garrett Cooper at first base in addition to being the team’s primary second baseman.
Prospects Jordan Groshans, Xavier Edwards and Jacob Amaya also provide infield depth.
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