TAMPA — What if I had told you this time last year that Anthony Volpe, fresh off a brief pit stop in Triple-A, would win a spring training battle with Oswaldo Peraza for the shortstop position? Who is the third rookie shortstop in history to hit at least 20 home runs and steal 20 bases, and the first Yankees rookie to win a Gold Glove at any position?
Any Yankees fan or affiliate would have registered.
Because so much of what we think about something is determined by how we tell the story. What we include. What to omit. tone. timing. Words — You can call someone bold or pushy for the same behavior and paint the opposite picture.
So there is a way to deliver the Volpe Major League origin story as a success. However, one person around the Yankees who hasn’t bought that version at the highest level is named Anthony Volpe.
“You can pick anything you want from last year, but for me it was way below what I expected of myself,” Volpe said.
If you want to see an even better Volpe in 2024, this is probably a good place to start. With Volpe. But if you want this to be a completely New York story, Francisco Alvarez will also be in it. Because they had similar rookie seasons. Both were generally viewed as top-10 prospects. Both came to the show young with little Triple-A seasoning. Both of them play important positions in the center of the diamond. Both had reputations as bat-first geniuses. However, both had batting averages of .209 and actually impressed with better defense than advertised.
But what was most memorable, at least to me, was how their veteran teammates felt about them. There was near universal praise for their seriousness, team-first nature, and maturity in handling the challenges of their first year. Teammates talked about them with admiration, in a way that made them feel like they knew what the real thing looked like.
If Volpe and Alvarez were stocks, this is the biggest reason I would invest. I think they will graduate to better offensive projections while developing into team leaders over time.
“The words that came to me were [about Volpe] It’s a passion,” Jose Trevino said. “His passion for his craft. His passion for his teammates. His passion as a shortstop for the New York Yankees. I know this kid wants to be the best. He works hard every day to be the best. It’s fun to watch. I’m glad I got a front row seat.”
In a different era, under a different Steinbrenner, Volpe would have been demoted at some point during the season. At that time, his 81 OPS Plus was eighth worst among qualifiers and his 27.8 strikeout rate was 13th worst. Perhaps the fact that Volpe never was provides more truth about what the Yankees actually feel about Peraza than public statements. But it also reflected their thoughts on Volpe’s makeup. I thought he could handle this.
The Yanks liked his defense, power, and speed, and he had a good enough collection to be a 3.3 WAR player at Baseball Reference, but only 1.9 at Fangraphs. This is also a reflection that you can choose to do in your storytelling. And how ridiculous it is that such a widely cited indicator has different equations. The Yanks also liked that Volpe didn’t back down.
The entire offense has pretty much cratered. Brian Cashman became the first Yankees GM in a quarter century to fire a coach during the season, firing hitting coach Dillon Lawson during the All-Star break. Volpe seemed to be the epitome of the overzealousness of a one-size-fits-all theory of air-pulling. His swing became long and uphill, especially exposing him to breaking balls and heat upstairs.
But here too Volpe looks in the mirror, but not as a scapegoat. He noted that Lawson was a minor league hitting coordinator and said, “Under no circumstances was this an issue.” [Lawson]”
Still, it’s difficult to fundamentally change your swing or approach when you’re playing every day, so Volpe went to the lab in the offseason and began training at the Yankees’ minor league facility in early January. New hitting coach James Rowson said Volpe “isn’t working uphill as much as he used to, but he’s working more through the ball.” Lawson believes this will reduce the holes in his swing, and when combined with Volpe’s strong strike zone concept, should lead to more walks and more opportunities to use his feet.
Of course, nothing is guaranteed. Perhaps what Volpe showed last year wasn’t his first steps, but what kind of person he will be in the majors. For example, the Mets kept waiting for Amed Rosario to graduate into a better player, but he never played full-time. Major League Baseball is tough. But the clubhouse will be shocked if Volpe doesn’t improve, a belief in the constant hunger to get better that is visible in the players in uniform.
“One of the reasons we used him as our Opening Day shortstop last year was because we felt he had ‘it’ qualities beyond talent,” Boone said.
A year later, the reason to bet on Volpe’s jump is because some parts of the story haven’t changed.
