Anthony Volpe Caps Productive Spring Training By Making The New York Yankees

Over the years numerous players made their heralded debuts for the Yankees. When it comes to Anthony Volpe finding out he will be on the opening day roster his presence seems to be taking place with more hype than usual.

Perhaps it is because ever since the Yankees announced Volpe was headed to the major league portion of spring training, the debate raged about whether he should head north for the regular season opener Thursday against the San Francisco. As the productive at-bats increased with more frequency, it was harder to ignore the results from the shortstop.

And by late Sunday afternoon, the Yankees confirmed they saw enough good things out of their 2019 first-round pick to announce he was making the team.

“My heart was beating pretty hard,” Volpe told reporters. “Incredible. I’m just so excited. It’s hard for me to even put into words.”

The first clue was Volpe being spotted on the field calling his parents and the final piece of evidence was posting the conversation of manager Aaron Boone and GM Brian Cashman telling Volpe what he would be doing Thursday afternoon.

And that was one of six straight tweets pertaining to Volpe making the opening day roster, which is something that can be described as the biggest highlight of a Yankee camp where frequent injuries dominated the landscape.

“While certainly the performance was there, he killed it between the lines,” Boone told reporters at the spring training complex in Tampa. “All the other things that we’ve been hearing about showed up. There’s an energy he plays the game with, and an instinct that he has that is evident. He really checked every box that we could have had for him. Absolutely kicked the door in and earned his opportunity.”

The conversation took place after Volpe possibly showed he does not need more than the 22 games of experience at Triple-A. In 17 exhibition games, he batted .314 with three homers, five RBIs to go with a .417 on-base percentage and Saturday put together a performance that is hard not to forget as Volpe fell a homer short of the cycle.

“He’s earned the right to take that spot, and we’re excited for him and excited for us,” Cashman said. “He just dominated all sides of the ball during February and March, and that bodes well obviously for him as we move forward.”

Volpe’s debut may be even more hyped up than Aaron Judge’s debut on Aug. 13, 2016. Unlike Volpe taking the team charter to New York, Judge joined the Yankees on a Saturday afternoon after getting a late night phone call about his impending promotion and then taking a lengthy car service ride to the Bronx.

Judge turned his debut into a hyped event when he homered in his first at-bat, doing so less than 24 hours after Alex Rodriguez played his final game. Now he is a 30-year-old captain noticing how ready Volpe seems to be for the major leagues.

“Usually you’re a little immature or a little unprepared,” Judge told reporters over the weekend. “But he seems ready to go every single game I’ve played behind him.”

Volpe also will be the first position player drafted by the Yankees to make his major league debut in a season opener. The only two position players whose major league debuts occurred in a season opener were Ramiro Pena as a pinch runner in a blowout loss at Baltimore in 2009 and Hideki Matsui 2003 in Toronto after he was signed from Japan.

This is a debut drawing parallels to Derek Jeter, who was five years into his retirement when the Yankees picked Volpe out of the Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J. Back in 1996 there was a similar debate about whether Jeter would go north but the differences were Jeter had a brief stint in 1995 and an injury to incumbent Tony Fernandez created a reason for him to make the team.

Now there were plenty of reasons besides the production in exhibition games for Volpe to make the team. In recent years shortstop has been a contentious point of frustration for fans, especially after Didi Gregorius’ mostly productive stint ended after five seasons.

In the pandemic year, Gleyber Torres played 40 games at shortstop and then 108 more in the tedious 2021 season. Last year, the Yankees started Isiah Kiner-Falefa at shortstop for 131 games and also mixed in Oswald Peraza for 11 starts late in the season. By the nine-game postseason run Kiner-Falefa, Peraza and versatile Oswaldo Cabrera each made starts at shortstop before the Yankees were swept by the Astros in the ALCS.

Now comes a chance at potentially stabilizing a position with a player who was a born when the Yankees were a month into being the three-time defending champions during the final season of Paul O’Neill and Scott Brosius. And while Volpe was being born April 28, 2001, Ted Lilly was earning the first of his 130 wins in a career that lasted through 2013.

“I think when we take a step back and evaluate, he really checked every box that we could have had for him. And absolutely kicked the door in and earned this opportunity,” Boone said.