TAMPA — It didn’t have to go this way with Anthony Volpe. And shortstop. And Opening Day at Yankee Stadium.
When the Braves arrived to camp, prospect Vaughn Grissom (who like Oswald Peraza had a major league cameo in 2022) was the shortstop favorite. Braden Shewmake, drafted nine picks ahead of Volpe in the 2019 first round and (like Volpe) without a day of major league service, generated March buzz.
In the end, Atlanta went with its Isiah Kiner-Falefa, the light-hitting Orlando Arcia as the starting shortstop for his steady glove and kept out-of-options Ehire Adianza as his backup. Both Grissom and Shewmake will begin the season in the minors as the contending Braves are playing the long game with the ability to preserve depth and audible during a long season.
Anthony Rizzo could remember 2015 and Kris Bryant being as touted a prospect as Volpe (probably more) and having a scintillating spring like Volpe (definitely more). The Cubs still sent him down to begin the year, almost certainly to manipulate his service time (though an arbitrator found against that).
But the new collective bargaining agreement has legislation to discourage such manipulation. Still, the Yankees could have kept Volpe down to open the season and, unless he finished top two in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2023, they would have essentially gotten seven years of service before free agency rather than six.
Instead, the Yankees really did hold a fair shortstop competition this spring.
He did this not just with good statistics — 1.064 OPS, three homers, 5-for-5 in steals. But with something more vital at a time of year when stats can be so small-sample deceiving. He looked like he belonged. He was not out of his element. The opposite — this was his element.
He was polite and deferential, but not meek on or off the field. Volpe handled a steadily increasing interview responsibility gamely and with a smile. The combination of short, positive, vanilla answers were straight out of Yankees dreamland. And, as Rizzo said, “On the field he makes good decisions. All of his at-bats have been good decisions. Good decisions when to swing. Good decisions when not to swing. On defense, I think his arm is really good. That is not a question. All the throws were crisp.”
Volpe became the starter by stripping away one concern after another. He did have enough arm and range for shortstop. By the end of camp, it was not just that he was having one good at-bat after another, he was doing it against Twins Opening Day starter Pablo Lopez and Phillies co-ace Aaron Nola. Like a good lawyer, Volpe was making the kind of case that even a jury that leaned differently six weeks ago could not reject.
Brian Cashman was implored by two reporters (I was one) after the news was made public to discuss by far the biggest story in Yankee camp. He deferred to his media relations department, which put out limited audio files of Cashman and Aaron Boone in which they were not asked questions by reporters. In one, Cashman said: “We entered camp with an open competition. We said it publicly and we said it privately. And the obvious exclamation point here is Anthony Volpe came into camp and took this position.”
Kiner-Falefa fell out of the competition quickly. The only reason to feed him to the bad vibes and boos of Opening Day as a starter would be if the Yankees had no other alternative.
Peraza did not hit well in camp. Still, he did not lose the job as much as Volpe won it. The Yankees could have just decided Peraza was on the 40-man roster and Volpe wasn’t. That Peraza has a bit of major league experience and did well with it and Volpe barely has played at Triple-A for an organization that normally is conservative in promotion. That Peraza is the superior defender.
But the Yankees let it play out. Fair. Square. And Volpe day after day showed up with energy and both-sides-of-the-ball skill and, really, it should not be understated — that hard-to-quantify aura that he belongs in the main room. He was often leading off in front of Aaron Judge late in camp, though as Rizzo said, “He doesn’t have to hit third on this team.”
The expectation is that Volpe will hit ninth Thursday against the Giants — the same as Derek Jeter did in his 1996 opener. As the great Sarah Langs tweeted, Volpe would be the youngest Yankee (21 years, 336 days) to start on Opening Day since Jeter (21 years, 281 days). Jeter actually had a poor spring in 1996, but then on Opening Day homered, made the key defensive play of a win against Cleveland and by the time the Yankees clinched a title in World Series Game 6, he was the leadoff hitter and pretty much the prince of the city.
It is a reminder that Volpe will have to now defend the job. That major league pitchers will adapt to him quickly enough and there will be a slump and we will see how quickly (if at all) he can dig himself out — and how long the Yankee leash is. The Yanks will hope Peraza goes to Triple-A with a good attitude. There will be an injury eventually or a trade. Aaron Boone has made it clear the competition did not end at Steinbrenner Field.
But would you really bet against Volpe over the long haul after watching him this spring? The Yankees really did host a fair fight. And ended up with the best result of all:
Nobody lost it.
Volpe just won it.
