![]() Yeah, the guy who might solidify the Yankees' shortstop position for the first time since Jeter grew up hoping to supplant him. ![]() While the Yankees optioned Peraza to the minors Sunday, if he emerges as Volpe’s second base partner, it will bring significant savings in coming years, with Volpe not eligible for salary arbitration until after the 2025 season should he hold on to the job. Had he not snatched the position decisively this spring, as Turner landed in Philly, Correa back in Minnesota and Bogaerts in San Diego, leaving a potentially large serving of Kiner-Falefa this year, a Yankee season already clouded by pitching injuries might seem even less certain.Īnd let’s be honest: If Volpe never loses his grip on the shortstop job, it will save the Yankees a ton of money, no small consideration when Steinbrenner has made it clear he won’t burn through cash like the hedge-fund shark across town. 802 OPS in 2022 as he conquered Class AA and finished up at Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre – those words would ring hollow. Had Volpe not emerged – had he not struck 21 home runs with an. Yet Steinbrenner always held firm that the club liked its prospects, a hardly veiled reference to Peraza and more specifically Volpe. The knife turned a bit more in October, when the Yankees were swept out of the American League Championship Series by the Houston Astros, a 99-win season vanishing as Kiner-Falefa’s production shriveled all the while. It was a grim juxtaposition – the big-money Yankees saying no thanks, over the years, to Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Javy Baez, Trevor Story, Trea Turner and Xander Bogaerts, even as their club was obviously not good enough to win a World Series. On more than one occasion, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner has had to stand in front of reporters and explain why the club opted to pass, not over one winter but two, on a free-agent shortstop crop that might not be equaled for decades. SPORTS NEWSLETTER: The biggest stories, every morning. READY FOR PRIME TIME: MLB's 100 names you need to know for 2023 MLB WIN TOTALS: Predicting every team's record for 2023 season It’s also a crucial point in time for a franchise now 14 years removed from its last World Series appearance. “The obvious exclamation point here,” GM Brian Cashman told reporters, “is Anthony Volpe came into camp and took this position. But it doesn’t hurt when a club’s preferred victor goes out and grabs it. This decision goes far beyond opening a few more eyes in a short sample. 417 clip and slugged three homers in Grapefruit League play. The nod was well-earned over a couple of months in Tampa: Volpe batted. On Sunday, the Yankees informed Volpe he made the team, and prevailed in a three-way derby that included itinerant veteran Isiah Kiner-Falefa and the more experienced but less vaunted fellow prospect Oswald Peraza. And that alone speaks both for the Yankees’ hopes for the young man and his potential to fulfill them. ![]() But Volpe has arrived, at age 21, and will jog out to his position on Opening Day at Yankee Stadium on Thursday afternoon to hold down one of the most prestigious positions in sports. No, nobody’s expecting Anthony Volpe to be Derek Jeter. Watch Video: Early MLB picks for division winners, MVPs and moreįor the first time in more than a quarter century, the New York Yankees have handed the shortstop position to a homegrown star with high hopes he will hold down the position for a long, long time.
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