Work with seven-time All-Star paying off for Chisholm

JUPITER, Fla. -- It’s not often that Marlins center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. is off the grid, but for a week this offseason, he stayed clear of social media.

That’s because manager Skip Schumaker called Chisholm one day and asked if he would mind working out with one of his friends. Chisholm then asked whom.

“He was like, ‘His name is Matt Holliday,’ and I was like, ‘Is that a real question? Like, have you ever seen me say no to a person that's supposed to be a Hall of Famer?’” Chisholm recalled. “‘No, I'm going to go work with Matt Holliday. I'll do anything. What do you need me to do?’ [He said] ‘Just go fly there and he'll make sure you're good.’ He definitely made sure I was good.”

Two of Holliday’s sons, MLB Pipeline top prospect Jackson and Draft Class of 2025 prospect Ethan, are big fans of ARiA Collective (Absolutely Ridiculous Innovation for Athletes), the company that has partnered with Chisholm in the past. Naturally, talk between Schumaker and Holliday, one of his favorite people and former Cardinals teammate, gravitated toward Chisholm.

So Chisholm flew to Stillwater, Okla., where he had three sessions with Matt, Ethan and Matt's youngest son, Reed. They trained so much that Chisholm didn’t post while he was there.

“He's like, ‘Hey, don't try to hit the ball to right field. Don't try to hit a homer to right field. Just try to hit a homer to center field, hit a homer to left field,’” Chisholm said. “And then now with me knowing my pop is pretty easy, I don't have to try to swing. I can just consistently put the barrel on it. And [if] it goes, it goes. If it doesn't, I hit [it] off the wall, line drive somewhere. Take it.”

The message seems to be sinking in: Chisholm homered in three straight at-bats on Monday and Tuesday. He took Cardinals right-hander Kyle Gibson deep twice in Tuesday afternoon’s 11-10 Grapefruit League loss at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium after tagging Astros closer Josh Hader in the sixth inning on Monday.

In Tuesday’s first inning, Chisholm barreled a curveball down and in with a 106.3 mph exit velocity. With a little help from the 15 mph winds going left to right, his 41-degree launch angle still made it over the right-field wall for a two-run shot. Up to bat again in the third, Chisholm sent Gibson’s elevated cutter 108.7 mph off the bat for a three-run homer.

Miami is looking for a full season from the 26-year-old Chisholm, who was limited to 97 games in 2023 due to right turf toe and a left oblique strain. He still managed to fall just a homer shy of a 20/20 campaign, which would have been Miami’s first since Hanley Ramirez in 2010.

“He can do things that most people can't do, and he's a freak,” Schumaker said. “He is now finally having a process to his game and not just trying to out-talent. This last week in general has been really, really good for him. When you have good games or bad games, still being process-driven and process-oriented is kind of his next step, and he's starting to figure that part out, and the results are the results.

“I know it's just spring, but he's seeing what a real process looks like, and I'm proud that he's doing it. Now, can he do it for six months? I think that's our challenge for him. All he talks about is the numbers, and there's a good chance he accomplishes what he wants to accomplish because of the work that he's going to put in."