Top Yankees prospect Anthony Volpe has high expectations for himself
TAMPA, Fla. – Expectations are through the roof for Anthony Volpe, generally regarded as the Yankees’ top prospect and considered one of the top position prospects in the game.
And the 20-year-old shortstop is just fine with those expectations.
"I don’t really feel pressure from the outside," Volpe said Tuesday at the club’s minor league complex, where Yankees’ minor leaguers not on the 40-man roster have been working out this month. "I think a lot of that’s from myself and the expectations I have for myself. That’s why I train so hard. A lot of the guys out here are training so hard because we really expect a lot out of each other. We want to become the best players we can and every day that takes a lot of pressure."
Volpe has enjoyed a steady rise in the organization since the Yankees made him their first-round pick (30th overall) in 2019 out of Delbarton High School in Morristown, New Jersey.. Last season the righthanded hitter combined to hit .294 with 27 homers and a 1.027 OPS in stints with Low-A Tampa and High-A Hudson Valley, where he ended 2021.
"Very mature for such a young player," said one rival talent evaluator who saw Volpe throughout 2021. "Really good energy, just seems to enjoy playing. Good hitter with a lot of upside. Power is developing, runs really well…has a good feel for the position with some of the subtleties that are hard to teach. Has the arm to make the throw from the hole, which some young guys struggle with."
Volpe likely will start this season with Double-A Somerset and, should that go well, a bump to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is a lock. A big-league debut this season is long shot but, under the banner of stranger-things-have-happened, it can’t be completely ruled out.
"I fully expect to see him there," new hitting coach Dillon Lawson said Tuesday. "Now, whether it's this year or what the timetable is, obviously, there's a lot of people that have a say in that. It's a little bit outside of my jurisdiction, but I have all the confidence in the world that he'll be there."
Volpe, prudently, wasn’t putting a timetable on it, even with shortstop a major need at the moment and a position general manager Brian Cashman said before the MLB lockout was a priority to address (indications continue to be the Yankees will pursue a stopgap player at short as their system is flush with shortstop prospects like Volpe and Oswald Peraza, who is likely to start the season in Triple-A and has drawn as many rave reviews from opposing team scouts as Volpe).
"It’s tough for me personally to think about stuff like that far in the future because I'm just so content and happy with how everything's going right now," said Volpe, who grew up a Yankees fan, with Derek Jeter his favorite player. "I don’t know. It depends how I play. I'm really super confident in all the work I put in this offseason and last year and everything, so I feel like if I play well then hopefully stuff will happen."
Cashman hasn’t called any of his prospects "untouchable" since tagging Greg Bird, Aaron Judge and Luis Severino as such before the 2015 trade deadline, but that basically was the message opposing teams who asked for Volpe (as well as Peraza) received at last season’s trade deadline.
"Cash pretty much was telling everyone he [Volpe] was unavailable," one executive said.
Volpe remained in the organization, the only one he’s ever wanted to play for, sounding very much like Jeter in describing his feelings on wearing the pinstripes and only the pinstripes.
"I mean, it’s awesome," Volpe said of not being dealt. "I obviously grew up a huge, huge Yankees fan, and it's been my dream to play for the actual Yankees and not just be a minor leaguer. I can't really control anything that happens from here on out, but I'm definitely going to work as hard as I humanly possibly can to try and make that a reality."
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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