Chisholm’s baggy – Jazz Chisholm Jr. credited baggy Oxford-Style pants borrowed from Giancarlo Stanton and a bat used by José Caballero for helping him break out of an early slump, culminating in a 7-6 win over Toronto on Monday night.
When Jazz Chisholm Jr. leaned into his swing on Monday night, the fabric doing the work wasn’t just his batting stance. It was the pair of baggy, pinstriped pants hanging on him—looser than his usual fit—sagging just enough to feel like part of the plan.
The Yankees second baseman wore Giancarlo Stanton’s uniform trousers as New York chased a spark through an early-season slump. and it showed up in the numbers that followed. Chisholm hit his tiebreaking. two-run homer in the seventh inning to lift the Yankees to a 7-6 win over Toronto on Monday night.
“My teammates love ’em,” Chisholm said after the victory. “I hear a lot of fans on the road talk about it but at home guys like it.”
The style is rooted in an old idea—Oxford Bags. extra-wide pants known in 1920s Britain—and it’s now being tested as something closer to a good-luck ritual. Chisholm has been borrowing the look as he works to climb out of a slow start. An All-Star last season, he finished with 31 homers, 80 RBIs and 31 stolen bases. This year, he didn’t hit his first home run until April 23. His batting average slid to .200 during the previous week’s trip to Baltimore.
At 5-foot-11 and 184 pounds, Chisholm has been wearing the looser pants of 221-pound teammate Trent Grisham. But he couldn’t find a Grisham pair last Wednesday at Baltimore, so he went looking for another option in the clubhouse. When he did, the Yankees’ slump storyline took on a fashion twist.
“I went to Big G’s pants, and the balls were coming off hot,” Chisholm said.
Stanton’s size gap made the change obvious. Chisholm, standing across from a 6-foot-6, 245-pound teammate, wore the baggier breeches Stanton uses—then immediately saw production. He said he had a double that day in Baltimore. and then he went 7 for 12 wearing Stanton’s knickers during a Subway Series against the New York Mets at Citi Field last weekend.
Teammates noticed the confidence that comes with being comfortable in your own weirdness. Cody Bellinger said, “Jazz has so much swag. He can really kind of pull off anything.”
Chisholm didn’t stop with the wardrobe. He also changed equipment in a way that players understand instinctively—when the numbers won’t move. people start tinkering with what they can control. In Baltimore. he switched from his regular bat. manufactured by Chandler. to a 34-inch. 31-ounce Victus model used by José Caballero.
Chisholm’s explanation was simple: “I was like, bro, keep my bat hot, and he’s like, `All right, let me try that,’” Caballero said. Caballero is on the injured list with a broken finger.
Caballero also described the feel. “His is more end-loaded. Mine is more balanced so you can really feel your hands.”
Baseball has always been a sport that makes room for superstition, and Bellinger offered an example from his own past. He recalled breaking out of a long slump at Double-A Tulsa in 2016. “Showered with my jersey on,” he said. “It did work. I ended up having a really good year.”
In Baltimore, and then in Queens last weekend, Chisholm’s changes looked like experimentation. But on Monday against Toronto, they came together with the kind of swing that forces the question: was it the clothing, the bat, or something else that finally clicked?
The seventh inning told the story. New York trailed 5-3 when Aaron Judge singled with two outs off Yariel Rodríguez, who had just relieved. Bellinger then drove a low splitter off the top of the right-center wall into the Yankees bullpen for a two-run homer that tied the score.
Trent Grisham pinch hit and walked, and then Chisholm sliced a slider down the left-field line. He watched it travel—until it clanked off the foul pole.
“I was trying to steer it with my mind,” he said.
Then came the moment that made the shift feel real. Chisholm flipped his bat, turned to teammates in the dugout and pounded his chest, then made a basketball jump shot motion as he rounded the bases. He raised his batting average to .237.
Manager Aaron Boone said the adjustments were showing up in the pitch-by-pitch reality of the at-bats. “He was missing pitches that he usually hits,” Boone said, “and now you’re seeing it come to its level a little bit.”
Boone didn’t shy away from the odd image, either. “I think he looks great, especially when his uni’s dirty and he’s running around the bases,” the manager said. “So, whatever he’s got to do.”
With New York taking a 7-5 lead, the game tightened in the ninth. David Bednar hung on after allowing pinch-hitter Jesús Sánchez’s RBI double. Toronto had two on and one out when Bednar struck out George Springer. He then retired Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on a grounder to Chisholm.
Chisholm may not need to look for another pair of pants anymore. Equipment manager Rob Cucuzza is leaving him the capacious Stanton trousers.
“They have my name on them now,” Chisholm said.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. Yankees Giancarlo Stanton Trent Grisham Oxford Bags José Caballero Victus bat Aaron Boone David Bednar Aaron Judge New York Mets Toronto Blue Jays MLB