Yankees manager touches on struggles of highly touted rookie

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone isn’t yet losing sleep over the fact that shortstop Anthony Volpe has largely looked like the MLB rookie he is at the plate this spring.

“It’s also important to see Volp the last few days has run into some tough luck,” Boone said during a Tuesday appearance on the “Talkin’ Yanks” podcast, as shared by John Healy of Audacy. “[He] hits a ball to the fence to start the game yesterday; smokes another ball that the third baseman makes a really good play on him. Same in Tampa, I think back-to-back days he hit bullets to start the game for outs. Been a little bit of that, then all of sudden when you haven’t got results and you smoke two balls for outs and then you punch out, it’s like ‘oh, you’re really struggling.’ I don’t really see it that way.” 

Volpe had his name mentioned in American League Rookie of the Year conversation last month but has yet to meet what were possibly some unrealistic expectations hovering over his status after he made the Opening Day roster. The 22-year-old began Tuesday slashing .205/.307/.320 with three home runs and nine RBI across 36 games, and ESPN stats show his 41 strikeouts were the 15th most in all of MLB heading into Tuesday. 

Of course, Volpe is hardly the only disappointing aspect of the Yankees as of the second week of May. The Bronx Bombers enter Tuesday’s league action sitting dead last in the AL East standings and trailing the first-place Tampa Bay Rays by 10 games, and New York’s offense is ranked 23rd overall with 147 runs scored.

To compare, the Rays scored a league-best 228 runs over their first 36 games. 

Slugger and reigning AL Most Valuable Player Aaron Judge is set to return from the injured list ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Oakland Athletics. Boone noted that having Judge and others back in the mix could allow the skipper to shift Volpe out of the leadoff spot and down the batting order.

“He’s taken his lumps here and there, but I also think it’s going to serve him well, he’ll process it well,” Boone added about Volpe. “I’ve been really pleased with what he’s doing.”