Don Mattingly opens up on what it was like to manage Jazz Chisholm

There are not many people in Major League Baseball who know Jazz Chisholm Jr. better than Don Mattingly, who watched the ball of energy debut in 2020, establish himself as a major leaguer in 2021 and break through as an All-Star in 2022.

Mattingly, Chisholm’s manager with the Marlins in all three of those seasons, has seen the talent that he still believes is not fully tapped into and has seen Chisholm fight with teammates along the way.

There were and are questions of how Chisholm, a polarizing figure in Miami, would fit into the Yankees clubhouse after the Saturday trade brought him to a big market, with expectations and superstar teammates, for the first time in his career.

Mattingly thinks it will be a nice fit.

“This is a good place for him, honestly,” the now-Blue Jays bench coach said before his club began a series with an 8-5 win over the Yankees in The Bronx on Friday. “I just think he likes the spotlight. I think it’s just better for him. [Aaron] Judge and those types of guys around him — he’s a really good player.”

The player has shown off his talents immediately in a new uniform, launching four home runs in his first four games with the Yankees.

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Chisholm, a 26-year-old who entered the majors as a shortstop before learning center field in a hurry with the Marlins, has been asked to learn third base on the fly and accepted the job happily, his athleticism (and strong arm) helping him with a task that not a ton of players can pull off.

Chisholm, who went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the Yankees’ loss , is a rare talent on the field who did not jell well with some Marlins teammates off the field.

“There was not that much drama — I guess there was,” Mattingly said, correcting himself. “I don’t know. It’s in the past. He was young.

“It’s how you go about things. It’s tricky nowadays.”

Nowadays, there are often norms that are handed down from generations past that dictate how a player should play the game, and there are often younger players who want to act as they want to act.

In a March appearance on “The Pivot” podcast, Chisholm painted a picture of younger, more inexperienced players wanting to have fun on the field and veteran players chiding them.

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In one instance, Chisholm remembered veterans scolding a Marlins rookie for emulating Juan Soto’s shuffle before he had accomplished much.

In reports out of Miami, Chisholm represented the younger sect of Marlins players while now-Dodger Miguel Rojas was the leader of the club.

“I love both guys that were involved, kind of the main players,” Mattingly said. “I think anything that happens when one guy is trying to help the other — it’s always the way you go about it.”

Mattingly was asked about Chisholm’s personality and gave an answer that reminded of Manny Ramirez.

“Jazz is Jazz. He’s himself,” Mattingly said. “I love Jazz just from the standpoint of I think he’s fearless. I don’t think he’s afraid of anybody out there at the plate.”

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On the field, Mattingly does not believe the world has seen the best Chisholm has to offer.

After his All-Star campaign in 2022 (which was cut short by injury), Chisholm was roughly a league-average hitter with the Marlins.

Before the trade, he was hitting just .249 with a .730 OPS this season.

He had stolen 22 bases but been caught eight times.

It is possible that with the Yankees — in a clubhouse run by Judge and World Series aspirations that didn’t exist in Miami — Chisholm can turn a corner.

“You could see it right away,” Mattingly said of his talent. “You don’t know how fast or how long or how quick it’s going to come. But when you see that kind of speed, the dynamism of the swing, the quickness, leverage. A little guy hits the ball a long way.

“You see that kind of leverage, that quick-twitch. It’s just a matter of how much better he gets. He’s still probably just scratching the surface of what he can do.”

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