Chisholm goes on IL as lower back pain lingers
Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s back injury will have him sidelined for the near future.
The Marlins on Wednesday placed the second baseman on the 10-day injured list with a right lower back strain.
Chisholm left Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the second inning due to the injury, which he has been dealing with for close to a week. He underwent testing, including an MRI, Wednesday morning.
“It’s a very sensitive spot,” Chisholm said, “so we’re gonna try and figure it out as soon as we can and get it done with and see what’s the plan after the MRI.”
The injury began in earnest on Friday, when he was removed from the Marlins’ series opener against the New York
Mets with what the team called back spasms. He was back in the lineup Saturday, sat out Sunday’s series finale with the Mets and Monday’s series opener with the Cardinals. He returned to the lineup Tuesday but was only on the field for about 20 minutes before being removed.
Chisholm felt the back pain the most both Friday and Tuesday on check swings.
“It’s just any kind of movement right now,” Chisholm said. “It’s very uncomfortable.”
How uncomfortable was the pain?
“It’s really up there,” Chisholm said.
Chisholm was hoping he didn’t have to miss playing time, understandable considering his persona.
But now the earliest he’ll be able to get back on the field is July 9, which would mean he will play no more than nine of Miami’s remaining games before the All-Star break.
“Everybody knows I’m not the one to ever come out of games,” Chisholm said, “but [Tuesday], I just had to get out of there.”
Chisholm, who entered the week as the leading vote-getter among National League second basemen for the All-Star Game, has been a spark plug in the Marlins’ lineup
this season. He leads the team in slugging (.535), OPS (.860), home runs (14), RBI (45) and runs scored (39). He also has 12 stolen bases.
“Jazz brings a lot to the table with speed and power,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “He’s our leading RBI guy. A lot of things that we lose.”
Chisholm’s injury comes at a time when the Marlins were closing in on getting to full strength with their lineup.
Brian Anderson returned Monday and Joey Wendle looks like he could be back at some point during the upcoming series against the Washington
Nationals. Luke Williams was added to the active roster Wednesday as the corresponding move to Chisholm’s IL placement.
With Chisholm sidelined, Jon Berti will likely get the bulk of second base reps while Anderson and Wendle (once he returns) handle third base. Anderson can also play the corner outfield spots and Wendle can make starts at second base as well.
Berti entered Wednesday with a .289 batting average and an MLBleading 22 stolen bases. He was the Marlins’ primary third baseman in June with both Wendle and Anderson sidelined and thrived — hitting .309 (30 for 97) with six doubles, one triple, 10 RBI, 15 runs scored and 18 stolen bases over 25 games, including a 24-game on-base streak that was snapped Tuesday.
GARY DENBO OUT
The Marlins have parted ways with vice president of player development and scouting Gary Denbo, a source confirmed to the Miami Herald on Wednesday.
Denbo was Derek Jeter’s first big front office hire after the Bruce Sherman ownership group took over the franchise in late 2017.
In addition to overseeing the Marlins’ minorleague developments and being the point person for the club’s various scouting departments, Denbo was also one of several front office officials Jeter consulted — along with general manager Kim Ng, now assistant general manager Dan Greenlee, the trio of Hadi Raad, Adrian Lorenzo and DJ Svhilik in the scouting department at the time — when it came to baseball operations decisions when Jeter served as the Marlins’ CEO, although Jeter had the final say on what moves were made.
Jeter left the Marlins on Feb. 28, saying in a statement that “the vision for the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead.”