The big picture regarding Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s season:

“It sucks,” Chisholm said while beginning Wednesday with a .217 batting average, 25 points below last year’s, and a .692 OPS that had dropped 121 points. “Sometimes you feel like you’re right there and the change is about to happen. Then you strike out three times or you go 0-for-4 and three hard hits [that become outs], and then the next day you come in and you hit three balls again hard, and you’re 0-for-3 again.

“You just got to keep on working past it.”

The smaller picture: a hitter who is accustomed to feasting on fastballs, and particularly four-seam fastballs, has gone hungry.

Chisholm crushed fastballs last season, when he slugged .548 against that category of pitch (which, for reference, is higher than Aaron Judge’s slugging percentage this season).

While Chisholm’s numbers across the board are down this season, his issues against four-seamers in particular have nose-dived. By Run Value, a metric that attempts to provide an estimated number of runs added, Chisholm’s minus-11 against four-seamers was the third-worst result from one player against one pitch in the majors, ahead of only Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and Colorado’s Ezequiel Tovar against four-seamers.

What has happened?

“I don’t know,” Chisholm said. “It’s a good question.”

Chisholm entered play hitting .187 with a .309 slugging percentage against four-seamers — a plunge that both he and opponents have noticed.

As his results against the pitch and fastballs in general have dipped, opposing arms have adjusted how to pitch him. In May, Chisholm saw 46.5 percent fastballs, and in every month since the percentage has increased. Entering play, August had brought him a steady diet of 58.9 percent fastballs.

Chisholm has tried to respond by being aggressive against the heaters. From Opening Day through the end of June, Chisholm got 173 first-pitch fastballs and swung 42 times (24.3 percent).

With the 2026 book on Chisholm out and the gas continually cranked up, since July began he had seen 73 first-pitch fastballs. Knowing opponents’ strategy and knowing his own struggles, he had swung at 36 (49.3 percent, going 2-for-7 with a pair of singles in the span).

“That’s probably because I know that a fastball is going to be coming because I haven’t been hitting them well,” Chisholm said before he played second base and batted sixth against the Mariners in The Bronx.

It is the subtle backdrop to a walk year that has not gone according to plan. Chisholm, who is as publicly confident as any player in the sport, entered this season envisioning 50 home runs and 50 steals. Entering play he had 17 and 31, respectively, a statistically below-average hitter who had begun to lose Aaron Boone’s trust against lefty pitchers.

Perhaps related have been his issues elsewhere, running into trouble on the basepaths (picked off again Tuesday) and tied for tops among AL second basemen with eight errors entering play. There also have been numerous smaller injuries, including a turned ankle Tuesday, that Chisholm has played through.

“Physically I’m fine,” Chisholm said. “Mentally I’m doing great, I’d say.”

He wants to play, he wants to win, and he wants to solve a pitch that might be evolving.

“I just feel like there’s a lot of different four-seamers nowadays,” Chisholm said. “A four-seamer isn’t as normal as it used to be. … I don’t know why.”

Surely not helping is a dip in bat speed, from an average of 73.9 mph last year to 73.2 mph this season.

Probably not helping is the pressure that comes with tens of millions of dollars on the line.

Definitely not helping has been Chisholm’s timing in the box, which is what his hitting coach theorized as the biggest issue.

“I think when Jazz’s timing is wrong, when he’s not ready on time, you start to see different things happen in the swing,” James Rowson said, “whether it be underneath the four-seamer or whether it be a little bit out in front of a breaking ball or an off-speed pitch.”

Perhaps helping, though, is the fact Chisholm is well aware of his issues with four-seamers.

He might not know the cure, but he knows the enemy.

“I have been working on fastballs more this second half of the season,” Chisholm said.