Another Jazz Chisholm Jr. injury scare has Yankees fans holding their breath

Everything seemed to be rosy for the New York Yankees on Wednesday night, taking an early 5-0 lead as they looked for a second consecutive emphatic win over the Kansas City Royals. But you're always just one bad break away from disaster, and Yankees fans have gone from resting easy to holding their breath in record time after third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. abruptly left the game before the bottom of the fifth inning. It's unclear exactly what was wrong, but Chisholm Jr. did appear to be favoring his lower body a bit after going first to third on a base hit in the top half of the frame.

Chisholm Jr. remained in the game for the rest of the inning, but it was Oswald Peraza at third in the bottom half. The team later announced that the infielder had been pulled with what's being called "left groin tightness".

New York hasn't offered an update beyond that, and Chisholm Jr. obviously hasn't undergone any testing yet, so we're not sure to what extent this was just a precaution. But given his lengthy injury history, and his importance to New York's World Series hopes, you'll forgive fans for fearing the worst.

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Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s injury history looms large after another early exit

Chisholm Jr. just recently came off the IL after missing more than a month with an oblique strain, the latest in a long line of ailments that have plagued the dynamic athlete over the course of his MLB career. He's one of the better athletes in baseball, but he's yet to show that he can do it for a full 162 games; in fact, he's played over 100 just twice in four full big-league seasons.

Given that track record, it's more than fair for Yankees fans to be concerned about the team's ability to get Chisholm back to the postseason healthy. He played 147 regular-season games last year, including 46 after being traded to New York, but again, that was an outlier. Many of Chisholm Jr.'s ailments have been of the soft-tissue variety, raising questions about his durability — it's not like these are simply fluke plays that can be chalked up to bad luck.

And that's a problem. Because while Chisholm Jr. is by no means a perfect player, he's still a very good one, and it's hard to overstate his importance to this Yankees team in particular.

Chisholm Jr. might be the Yankees' most important position player not named Aaron Judge

Chisholm Jr. gives New York a jolt of everything they were previously lacking: namely, top-end athleticism, dynamic baserunning ability and great infield defense. The fact that all of that also comes with 25-homer pop at the plate is just an added bonus.

Judge is New York's engine, but you can argue that, outside of No. 99, Chisholm Jr. would be the position player they'd have the toughest time replacing were he forced to miss time due to injury. This Yankees infield is already thin as it is, relying on DJ LeMahieu as the everyday second baseman now that Oswaldo Cabrera is out for the year. If Chisholm Jr. is out for an extended period, the team would have to turn to internal options like Oswald Peraza or Pablo Reyes or a prospect like Roc Riggio just to get by — not exactly the position you want to be in as a team with title aspirations.

Chisholm Jr. often rubs people the wrong way with his brash playing style, and he's drawn claims of being overrated as a result. Maybe he's not the superstar some predicted when he first burst onto the scene with the Miami Marlins, but he's still an easily above-average bat and a maven with the glove at multiple positions. Those players don't grow on trees, and it's the skill set the Yankees have in least supply. Hopefully this will turn out to be only a minor setback, but if it's not, it could turn the AL playoff picture on its ear.