In a decision that caught a lot of baseball fans off guard, Miami Marlins center fielder Jazz Chisholm was named the MLB: The Show 23 cover athlete Monday afternoon.
The last seven cover athletes — Shohei Ohtani, Fernando Tatis Jr., Javier Baez, Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Ken Griffey Jr. and Josh Donaldson — had all either won a Most Valuable Player Award before appearing on the cover, or had finished top-5 in MVP voting before.
Jazz Chisholm breaks that streak. He was voted into the 2022 MLB All-Star Game at second base, but only played 60 games last season, slashing .254/.325/.860 with 14 home runs and 45 RBI. He has not received an MVP vote, yet, in his three-year career.
Since making his Major League debut in 2020, Chisholm is a career .243 hitter with a .305 On Base Percentage and .754 OPS over 205 games.
MLB: The Show is hoping to catch a young breakout star at the right time in his career. Chisholm has yet to reach stardom yet. The American League Rookie of the Year, Julio Rodriguez, was who I expected to land on the cover, and would have fit that bill perfectly.
In 2022, Rodriguez put together a historic rookie season that bested Ken Griffey Jr.’s rookie season in a number of statistical categories. Rodriguez helped the Mariners make the postseason for the first time in 21 years.
Rodriguez finished seventh in American League MVP voting, batting .284 with a .345 On Base Percentage and .853 OPS in 2022. Chisholm may be on the cusp of stardom. Rodriguez is already a star.
At the end of the day, the cover athlete probably won’t impact the revenue that the game generates. Rodriguez, 22, will have plenty more chances to grace the cover in the coming years. He’s not going anywhere.
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