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Examining Anthony Volpe and the Yankees' shortstop conundrum
Anthony Volpe is not Derek Jeter.
And despite the avalanche of hype accompanying the young shortstop’s debut two months ago, he was never going to be. Such comparisons were unfair, unrealistic, untethered. Jeter was singular, his impact on his franchise and sport immeasurable.
But with the season approaching its halfway mark, the Yankees have a much more tangible problem: Anthony Volpe is not playing like Anthony Volpe.
Heading into spring training, Volpe’s odds of making the team were Chris Sale thin. But the talented 22-year-old forced his way onto the Opening Day roster with a scintillating spring showing, snatching the starting shortstop job from fellow youngster Oswald Peraza, who’d already gotten his big-league feet wet.
Through rose-colored lenses, Volpe’s addition looked potentially transformative: a dynamic player primed to add an element of speed and urgency to a plodding, aging Yankees roster. Ten weeks later and the stat line tells a different, more dispiriting story: Through 67 games, the kid is hitting a paltry .186/.260/.345.
To make matters worse, the arrow is red and pointing downward. Since May 1st, Volpe has gone 22-for-124 with 46 strikeouts (fifth most league-wide) with just six walks.
And while time is still very much on Volpe’s side — he is younger than most of the college players taken in last year’s draft — his struggles may soon force the Yankees into an uncomfortable decision.
At 38-29, the club sits in third place in the AL East. Their roster is flawed, top-heavy, old and injury-prone, but also has Aaron Judge on it, which helps. The season thus far has been neither a catastrophe nor a success. The Yankees have been even par, weathering their injuries with timely hitting, unlikely contributions from the Jake Bauerses of the world and, well, that Judge guy.
But this is an organization with annual World Series ambitions. Anything else is a failure, a headline, a disappointment. So even though Volpe is not the problem — starting pitchers not named Gerrit Cole or Domingo Germán have been unhealthy or bad, both catcher and left field have been offensive black holes, the injured list often needs to be unfurled medieval town crier style — he is a problem. The Yankees rank 25th in offensive production from their shortstops. Ask anyone from Freehold to Poughkeepsie, and they’ll tell you that ain't good enough.
Meanwhile, Peraza has been raking in Triple-A, forcing the issue like his counterpart did in spring.
So the Yankees have a choice to make, in which the status quo is a choice in and of itself. They can stay the course, run Volpe out there every day and bank on the consensus former top-10 prospect adjusting to big-league arms. That’s not a bad route! Last year in Double-A Somerset, Volpe was similarly awful, lost at sea. Eventually, he got comfortable and got hot.
Central Jersey is not the Bronx, however, and Volpe knows that as well as anyone. No amount of strong handshakes, kind gestures and Yankee heirlooms can teach you how to hit big-league pitching. The Yankees are trying to win a championship here. And if Volpe keeps scooping up K’s like Gruyère samples at the deli counter, there comes a point in which the club can no longer afford to be patient.
Every contending ballclub must weigh the development of its young players with the ambitions of its major-league team. What’s best for Volpe and the 2026 Yankees might not be best for the 2023 Yankees. That is not a simple situation.
But it’s one the Yankees created themselves.
For the last two winters a cornucopia of game-changing shortstops reached free agency. One of the richest teams in baseball passed on them all, trusting what it already had in the cupboard. Volpe (or Peraza) may well come good and end up with a plaque in Monument Park, but it’s hard not to look at Corey Seager’s 1.005 in Texas and wonder, what if?
And now the Yanks are left with an unenviable conundrum: jettison their golden boy to Scranton or pray he gets it going against the best in the world.
Volpe still has the intangibles, the talent and the track record to inspire confidence in a turnaround. All the glowing things people said and wrote about him in March are still true. But how long will he have the opportunity? How long should he have the opportunity? When does Peraza get his shot?
With his play and persona, Volpe earned the chance to be the Yankees' forever shortstop out of spring training. And while his batting average starts with a 1, it is still much, much too early to say he bottled it. The glimpses have been encouraging, and you still can see a future All-Star if you look for it. Judge experienced similar early scuffles. Jeter, too. There are reasons to believe.
But for Volpe, the clock is officially ticking.
Jake Mintz, the louder half of @CespedesBBQ is a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He played college baseball, poorly at first, then very well, very briefly. Jake lives in New York City where he coaches Little League and rides his bike, sometimes at the same time. Follow him on Twitter at @Jake_Mintz.
