Should HR+SB be a stat? Jazz thinks so -- and he's coming for Judge

This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NEW YORK -- It’s a safe wager that Jazz Chisholm Jr. ranks among the league leaders in confidence.

At various times this spring, the Yankees infielder boasted of his plans to make the All-Star team, to bring home Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards, and even to secure hardware as the American League’s Most Valuable Player.

So it should come as little surprise that there has been a friendly competition behind the scenes in the Yankees clubhouse, where Chisholm has teased reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge about besting him in a stat category of his creation.

We’ll call it HR+SB, and the math is easy -- home runs plus stolen bases.

“I think I’m beating him right now, right?” Chisholm said. “You’ve got to add both. You know how they say OPS is on-base plus slug? This is home runs plus stolen bases, you know?”

Entering play on Wednesday, Chisholm had the edge. He and Judge were tied with six homers, but Chisholm had four steals to Judge’s two – and, thus, 10 HR+SB to Judge’s eight.

Apprised of Chisholm’s creation, Judge grinned.

“Oh boy,” Judge said. “Home runs plus stolen bases. Does he lead in that category? Well, we’ll fix that tonight.”

Judge did chip away at Chisholm's lead Wednesday night, hitting a go-ahead homer in the seventh inning that helped secure a 4-3 win over the Royals. He now has seven home runs to Chisholm’s six, closing the gap to just one.

Picking a numbers battle against Judge, who led the Majors with 58 home runs while stealing 10 bases last season, might not be a winning strategy (though it’ll give fans something fun to track as the year goes on).

“I told him,” Judge said, “I was going to catch him in stolen bases this year.”

Chisholm came close to equaling Judge’s total in this very important, not-at-all trivial stat category last year. He hit a combined 24 homers with 40 steals for the Yankees and Marlins -- that’s 64 HR+SB, just behind Judge’s 68.

This sparked some curiosity on our part -- who has had the best HR+SB season all-time? The answer makes sense: it’s Rickey Henderson, the game’s greatest all-time leadoff hitter, who blended power and speed like no other. In 1982, Henderson stole 130 bases and hit 10 homers for the Athletics.

Henderson has three of the top four HR+SB totals in the Modern Era (since 1901), having posted a 117 HR+SB in 1983 for the A’s and a 115 HR+SB for the Yankees in 1986. The Cardinals’ Lou Brock ranks second in the Modern Era with a 121 HR+SB for the 1974 Cardinals.

Last season, Shohei Ohtani had 113 HR+SB for the Dodgers, becoming baseball’s first 50-50 player with 54 homers and 59 steals.

Time will tell if these bragging rights fuel Chisholm and Judge through the dog days of summer. More importantly for the Yanks, Chisholm said his swing is clicking into form as the Yankees shake off the frigid weather that trailed them home from their road trip to Pittsburgh and Detroit.

“I’ve been feeling good at the plate this whole time,” he said. “It’s just been kind of cold. It’s getting warm now, so we’re just going to warm up. … It’s been the worst for me. I’m from the Bahamas; I’m used to the warm weather. That’s probably the coldest I’ve ever played in this past week, especially to go five games in a row like that.”