In case you haven’t noticed, New York Yankees fans have grown more than impatient with shortstop Anthony Volpe, with many calling for an upgrade at the position worthy of the club’s illustrious history of talented rosters.
Volpe bursted onto the MLB season as a rookie in 2023, but he’s regressed since. Last year got so bad for Volpe at the plate, that the Yankees finally decided to bench Volpe for a bit in favor of Jose Caballero.
The change wasn’t permanent. Volpe returned to the lineup after a little while. He even hit a random home run off of Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet in Game 1 of the ALWC (and went on to be arguably the Yankees’ best player in the three-game series).
At the end of the day, though, Volpe’s inconsistent production has trended more towards famine than feast, and Yankees observers are sick of the club continuing to back Anthony despite his long-tenured struggles.
Former Yankee Alex Rodriguez, now an analyst, was the most recent voice to criticize the Volpe situation. Interestingly, though, A-Rod seemed to blame the Yankees organization as much as Volpe himself.
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“(Volpe) is an incredible young man with great family, and the organization has fallen in love with him,” Rodriguez said this week while appearing as a guest on WFAN radio. “But at some point, the numbers don’t lie, right?
“You have 167 strikeouts (in your rookie year), 156 and 150 (in the next two), and here’s a young man that, the biggest way he can impact winning is with his number one tool: his legs. But (they’ve) taken his legs away. And what I mean by that … here’s a young man who has stolen over 50 … bases in the minor leagues. He stole 18 last year, and it’s hard to impact winning when you’re striking out 150 times, and you’re hitting .212.”
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“I think if you zoom out … (this is) an organizational hitting philosophy that is absolutely broken. And until they fix it, I don’t think they win big.”
The 2025 MLB season, Volpe’s third season in the bigs overall, proved challenging for the 24-year-old. He batted .212 with 19 home runs and 72 RBI across 153 games, while his OPS dipped to .663.
Defensively, Volpe led the American League with 19 errors and saw regressions in metrics like Outs Above Average. A shoulder injury in May lingered, impacting his performance, though he played through it until a poor ALDS against the Toronto Blue Jays, where he struck out 11 times in 26 at-bats.
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In October, Volpe underwent labrum surgery, with recovery projected to sideline him until May 2026. Despite fan criticism and calls for change, Yankees GM Brian Cashman continues to reaffirm commitment to Volpe, citing his youth and past flashes of brilliance. Over three seasons, Volpe has compiled a .222 average, 52 homers, and 70 steals, but offensive inconsistency remains a concern, as noted by A-Rod.
Volpe entered MLB in 2023 with high expectations as a top prospect. That year, he earned an American League Gold Glove for his defensive prowess and finished eighth in Rookie of the Year voting, posting a .209 batting average with 21 home runs and 24 stolen bases. In 2024, Volpe improved slightly at the plate to .246 with 12 homers and 29 steals, contributing in the World Series despite the Yankees’ loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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