Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm suffering growing pains at third base

WASHINGTON — From the day Jazz Chisholm Jr. made his first career start at third base, Aaron Boone cautioned there would be growing pains. About one month later, after a delayed release, they have started to come in bunches.

After looking smooth at the hot corner in his first 15 starts at third base, Chisholm has made five errors in his past four games.

He did not make an error in the Yankees’ 5-2 loss to the Nationals in the series finale.

“Still learning,” Boone said before Wednesday’s loss. “On balance, it’s been really good to elite [defense]. But there’s things over there that these reps will be really valuable for him. These plays will be really good learning things for him moving forward. … It’s part of the growing pains of it a little bit.”

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The Yankees still have all of September to get Chisholm more used to the intricacies of third base before the games get pressurized in October.

In the meantime, the left-handed hitter has continued to provide an impact with his bat, belting his ninth home run in his 20th game as a Yankee in Wednesday’s loss.

But through Tuesday, the advanced metrics were not kind to Chisholm.

He had recorded minus-one Outs Above Average (via Baseball Savant) and minus-four Defensive Runs Saved (via FanGraphs) at his new home.

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In addition to a throwing error in the first inning Tuesday night (which essentially came from shortstop, his first position in the big leagues, while trying to nab the speedy James Wood at first base), there was another play in the 4-2 loss that showed Chisholm’s inexperience at third.

As part of a sloppy sixth inning overall for the Yankees, Chisholm failed to get a tag down on Dylan Crews, allowing the rookie to steal third base and eventually score.

The throw from Jose Trevino beat Wood to the bag, but Chisholm (who was shifted over towards shortstop) had trouble stopping his momentum and initially put his glove down on the dirt, which Crews avoided to get a hand in safely.

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“That’s a tough one,” Boone said. “When you’re off the line, good slide, your momentum, you gotta bust it to get to third. So it’s hard to get yourself in a great position to deal with a really good slide.”

In Monday’s series opener, Chisholm made two errors on the same play — stepping back to try to handle a tough hop, bobbling it then making things worse by unleashing a one-hop throw to first that got past DJ LeMahieu.

Sunday, Chisholm made a terrific diving stab on a grounder but then got tagged with an error on the bouncing throw to first, and two batters later made another fielding error on another in-between hop.

But as much as the Yankees can work with Chisholm at the position before games and talk through certain plays that are new to him after spending the rest of his career at shortstop, second base and center field, getting to learn it by experience (including failure) may ultimately be the most helpful tool.

“I think it is a rep thing — and then talking through situations [about] some of the nuance things of the position,” Boone said. “Third base — take it from me who played that most all my life — it’s that position that because you’re on the left side of the diamond, you sometimes don’t have the time to read. You gotta get that initial read right where you can get yourself into a little bit of trouble.

“Overall, he’s done really well. But that’s an experience thing of making that quick, proper decision that starts with a good pre-pitch [setup] and making sure you’re in good position from an athletic standpoint and how your feet are moving, whether you’re drop-stepping or going to aggressively attack a ball. Overall, he’s been really good. But experience will be a good teacher for him.”

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