PHOENIX — Anthony Volpe was unwell Sunday, feeling the effects of the Yankees’ trip to Mexico City.
That was pretty much the only concern about Volpe’s start to the season.
The Yankees shortstop spent the offseason flattening his bat trajectory and immediately saw results in the season-opening series, further confirming what the team saw from him this spring.
But in three games against the Astros, he did more than just record four hits for 10, a double, a home run, and four walks.
Volpe, who played in Monday’s series opener against the Diamondbacks, threw a whopping 70 pitches in 14 at-bats.
He only swung and missed twice.
“I definitely think he made some adjustments to his swing,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Certainly the experience and his aptitude, his baseball IQ. But swings and misses were an issue for him last year. As we’ve been talking about since the beginning of the spring, I think he’s going to have to deal with some of the holes that the league exposed little by little last year.” It’s clear that they’ve worked hard to fill in the blanks.”
It’s unlikely that the meager whiff rate (2.9%) will remain this low for an entire season.
But Volpe seems poised to at least reduce the 12.5 percent whiff rate he posted during his rookie season (32nd out of 134 eligible major leaguers), which contributed to his 167 strikeouts. In 159 games.
Volpe’s 27.8 percent strikeout rate last year was also the 14th highest among eligible batters, which was one of the factors contributing to his second-lowest on-base percentage at .283.
The Yankees believe the soon-to-be 23-year-old Volpe has the ability to be an even bigger threat on the bases than he showed during his rookie season.
He was right-footed in that regard during the Astros series, reaching base in eight of his 14 at-bats.
Volpe looked more composed at the plate, putting together the kind of tough at-bats the Yankees hope to be known for, with Juan Soto leading the way.
Coach Boone said after the first game of the season that he looked like a “much better hitter.”
“I feel like I’m just setting myself up for success,” Volpe said. “If you feel like you’re doing that, everything will take care of itself. If you know that you can at least put yourself in a position to succeed, you’ll definitely feel a lot better.”
Asked why Volpe didn’t make adjustments to his swing last season (which would have given him more leeway for mistakes on pitches inside the strike zone), Boone said that’s a “tough question.” , suggested it’s not that simple.
“Sometimes you can make subtle adjustments during the season,” Boone said. “Sometimes when you overhaul something, it’s really difficult during the season. But there’s no question, he’s committed to making some changes this winter. It’s certainly too early. But what we’ve seen over the past month and a half suggests these changes will be very fruitful.”
Boone recalled seeing Volpe’s improved swing for the first time at the club’s player development facility in early February.
As he walked to the batting cage, he immediately noticed that the trajectory of his bat was flatter.
“You could see right away in the cage the adjustments that he had been working on all winter, but then as we saw in his work and in the spring games, it continued to show and now here to start the season. “I’m working on it,” Boone said.
If Volpe were more consistent at the plate, the Yankees’ lineup would only get longer, not to mention that if he could get on base he would be a threat to steal bases.
He started the season batting either No. 6 (against left-handed batters) or No. 7 due to a sudden jump in the batting lineup due to DJ LeMahieu’s foot injury.
Although the early results were encouraging, Volpe wanted to stay focused on his process.
“For me, it’s just day by day,” he said. “What’s good about me is that I feel like we’re working on the right thing. I feel like if we keep working like this every day, the results will definitely come.”
