Marlins’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. rise to All-Star status is being felt in the Bahamas

This is the second in a three-part series highlighting the Miami Marlins’ representatives at the 2022 MLB All-Star Game. To read Part 1 on Garrett Cooper, click here.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. was 4, maybe 5 years old when he first started manifesting his big baseball moments.

He was playing behind his house in the Bahamas, rocks simulating baseballs and flat sticks simulating bats. He would imagine the situations as if they were unfolding right in front of him.

“Walk-off home runs in the backyard,” Chisholm said.

Two decades later, there’s no need for Chisholm to merely think about those moments. They’re a reality now.

The 24-year-old Chisholm is thriving with the Miami Marlins in his second full big-league season and the baseball world is taking notice of his blend of speed, power and entertainment when he’s on the field. It all played a part in Chisholm winning the fan vote to be the National League’s starting second baseman for the 2022 MLB All-Star Game.

And while Chisholm won’t be able to play in the game on Tuesday as he deals with a right lower back strain, his rise toward superstardom has been felt around the league.

It’s also being felt in the Bahamas, which is on an upward trend in producing baseball talent and now has a representative face in the big leagues in Chisholm showing that it’s possible to make it.

“There’s a lot more kids now wanting to play baseball,” said Geron Sands, the president and co-founder of I-ELITE Sports Academy in the Bahamas and one of Chisholm’s first baseball coaches. “There’s a lot more kids wanting to be Jazz Chisholm. There’s just more awareness of baseball right now.”

Jazz being Jazz

Sands has known Chisholm since Chisholm was about 8 years old.

Over the course of more than 15 years, Chisholm’s demeanor hasn’t changed.

“Definitely the same guy,” Sands said. “He’s just a little older now, but definitely the same guy. High energy. Always wanting to be the best guy out there — and believing he was the best guy out there.”

But beneath the flair and the pizzazz, rooted beyond the Eurostep celebrations and youthful antics, is a balance of humbleness, an understanding of who he is and a commitment to being himself.

“If being yourself is being Jazz, then just be Jazz,” Sands said. “For me, it’s extremely pleasing and blessing for me to see him be the same person that he’s always been.”

Jazz being Jazz has helped pave his way to this point in his career to get to a place that has rarely been seen by a player from the Bahamas.

Chisholm is one of eight Bahamian-born players to play in the big leagues. He is the first to be named an MLB All-Star.

And back on the islands, they are following his burgeoning career with close eyes.

“Everyone is pulling for the Marlins right now,” Sands said, “because of Jazz.”

There’s more baseball being played in general, too.

Sands’ I-ELITE Sports Academy, for example, has 20 full-time kids taking part in the baseball program and 40 kids who participate overall, which Sands said is doubled what it was when the academy began in 2012.

Four players signed out of the Bahamas during the past international free agent cycle, including two — shortstop Cherif Neymour and outfielder Toby Simmons — signing with the Marlins. Neymour said Chisholm called him shortly after signing the deal in January.

“My relationship with him is very strong,” Neymour said, adding that signing his first contract was a special day because he was “following in the footsteps of Jazz.”

Chisholm makes his way back to the Bahamas during the offseason and makes it a point to work out with the up-and-coming players at I-ELITE. He’ll review video of their swings and their fielding in addition to running drills on the field with them.

“He is definitely somebody that’s very important to the Bahamian baseball family,” Sands said. “Most definitely.”

‘A world of talent’

Even with missing the past 19 games, Chisholm still leads National League second basemen in home runs (14), is third in RBI (45), fourth in stolen bases (13) and eighth in runs scored (39). His .860 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and .535 slugging mark are tops among NL second basemen who have played at least 60 games.

But neither Chisholm nor manager Don Mattingly think the second baseman is anywhere close to reaching his full potential yet.

“It’s a ways away, honestly,” Mattingly said. “I think there is a lot in there. … It’s going to be up to him, honestly, how far he takes that talent. He has a world of talent. How much he is willing to work, how much time he is willing to put in on all aspects of his game. There is really a high ceiling.”

Now, there are some specific numbers that go with that ceiling in Chisholm’s mind.

One in particular: Chisholm feels like he has the potential to produce a 40 home run, 40 stolen base season, something that has been done four times in MLB history and last by Alfonso Soriano in 2006.

But numbers aside, Chisholm’s focus is singular.

“I just want to go out there and play baseball,” he said. “That’s always my goal.”

For two decades, he put in the work to make sure his goal became a reality.

It began with his grandmother Patricia Coakley, who played shortstop for the Bahamian national softball team, teaching him how to hit when he was 2. It continued with those rocks and flat sticks in the backyard. Then it was working under Sands before moving to the United States when he was 12 to attend high school at Life Prep Academy in Wichita, Kansas, before returning to the Bahamas.

He signed as an international free agent with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2015 for $200,000, and worked his way through their minor-league system before being traded to the Marlins on July 31, 2019, for starting pitcher Zac Gallen.

He made his MLB debut on Sept. 1, 2020, and helped the Marlins advance to the playoffs in the pandemic-shortened season.

He made the Marlins’ Opening Day roster in 2021 as the starting second baseman and hit .248 with a .728 OPS with 18 home runs, 53 RBIs and 23 stolen bases over 124 games — showing glimpses of his pure talent but not on a consistent basis.

This year, he has put together a first half worth of being an All-Star.

“The journey was kind of long,” Chisholm said, “but I’m here now and it’s just exciting to make history and be part of it.”