Another day, another reason for Anthony Volpe to make the Yankees
The Yankees' Anthony Volpe rounds the bases after hitting a two-run homer in the second inning of a spring training game against the Twins on Friday in Tampa, Fla. Credit: AP/John Raoux
TAMPA, Fla. — Anthony Volpe has done everything in his power to make the Yankees’ Opening Day roster, including flashing his power by hitting a long home run to centerfield on Friday.
Will it be enough? Are the Yankees ready to promote their 21-year-old top prospect even though he has only 89 Triple-A at-bats on his resume?
They still aren’t saying. The Yankees don’t have to submit a 26-man roster until 10 a.m. on Opening Day, which is Thursday.
“Hopefully, we know our team before you go to bed [Wednesday] night,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I think we’ll know before [the team leaves Florida on Monday]. That doesn’t mean, ‘He said they’ll know before they leave Florida.’ I think we’ll know before we leave Florida.”
Volpe has blown the doors off the shortstop competition. If the decision is based on who has had the better spring training, it will be Volpe in a landslide.
“He’s been everything we expected and hoped for,” Boone said. “He’s looked the part.”
But there are other factors: Volpe’s inexperience. The fact that he is not on the 40-man roster. That promoting him now instead of later in the season would start the clock on his future arbitration eligibility and could cost the Yankees serious money down the road.
Yankees captain Aaron Judge, who earlier said “if you’re the best player, it shouldn’t matter your age. You should be up helping the New York Yankees,” said on Friday he wasn’t going to say if Volpe should make the team.
“I’m not an evaluator. I’m a player,” Judge told Newsday. “I like what I see. He’s a competitor. He has great at-bats. He hustles. Great defense so far. I think that’s a lot of the things you need.”
What else do you need?
“The competitive grind is one of the most important things, intangibles that you need to play in the big leagues, especially in New York,” Judge said. “The game is hard enough as it is. The media’s going to be on you. The fans are going to be on you. You’ve got to be able to stick through it when you have a couple of 0-for-4s or 0-for-5s and know there’s going to be daylight on the other side. I’ve seen that from him so far. So I’m excited to see what happens.”
It’ll be Volpe or fellow rookie Oswald Peraza at short in the opener, as Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Oswaldo Cabrera are being groomed as utility players.
Peraza, who had been slumping, went 2-for-4 in the Yankees’ 7-6 split-squad loss to the Orioles in Sarasota on Friday night to raise his average from .171 to .205.
After going 1-for-4 in the Yankees’ 6-4 loss to the Twins at Steinbrenner Field, Volpe is batting .277 (13-for-47) with five doubles, three home runs, eight RBIs, five stolen bases in five tries and a .967 OPS in his first big-league spring training.
Neither Volpe nor Peraza has made an error in spring training.
“They’re well-rounded players,” Boone said. “They’re good on the bases. They’re good in the field.”
Peraza is considered the better defensive shortstop, but Volpe has more pop. He showed it when he swung at a first-pitch slider from Minnesota starter Pedro Lopez and deposited it over the centerfield fence in the third inning.
In his first at-bat, Volpe had struck out on the same pitch.
“He’s a heady, smart player, but he’s a good player,” Boone said. “He’s got the equipment to go do things [and] he processes things really well. He learns. He adjusts really well.”
One of the things Volpe has learned is how to adjust to the possibility he might be the first Yankees rookie to start on Opening Day since Judge in 2017.
“I guess I kind of block it out,” he said with a smile as big as all outdoors. “It’s out of my control.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
