Yankees' Anthony Volpe not in starting lineup after getting hit in elbow by pitch
Anthony Volpe #11 of the New York Yankees is checked out after being hit by a pitch during the second inning with the bases loaded against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Anthony Volpe left Friday night’s game with a left elbow contusion but said later that night that he was “optimistic” about his condition, especially after X-rays and a CT scan came back negative.
“I expect to be in there [Saturday],” the third-year shortstop said.
But Volpe, one of the more durable Yankees during his first two-plus years in the big leagues, wasn’t quite ready to go.
Aaron Boone said he initially had Volpe in Saturday night’s lineup but decided he could benefit from a full day off.
“Had him in there up until a couple of hours ago when he got here,” Boone said before Saturday night's game. “Strength, everything’s good [with the elbow], but he’s gotten pretty good-sized swelling in there still. Kind of talking with the trainers, they’re like, ‘I think it would do him well to try and get one more day and just get a lot of treatment in there.’ Hopefully he’ll be back in there tomorrow.”
Volpe, who hit a two-run homer in the Yankees’ five-run first inning Friday night, was hit on the elbow by Walker Buehler's 88.8-mph changeup in the second inning — which forced in a run and gave the Yankees a 7-0 lead — and he did stay in the game. But Volpe, who went down in a significant amount of pain after getting hit by the pitch and was evaluated by head trainer Tim Lentych, was removed in favor of Oswald Peraza in the fourth (Peraza, a natural shortstop who came up through the minors playing primarily at that position, started at short Saturday night).
“I’ve been in that position where I’ve gotten hit on that elbow where he got it,” said Boone, who played 12 years in the majors. “It’s not a great place to get hit, especially when you don’t have a pad on. I remember a few times, I got hit there, within a year like a few times in that same spot before I wore anything, and it’s kind of like, you can play through it but you’re stiff and you don’t want any bad habits to come out of it. So I think it’s the smart thing to give it a day and let’s treat this thing and try to get some of that swelling down.”
Volpe, hitting .241 with eight homers, 17 doubles and a .766 OPS, played in 61 of the Yankees’ first 62 games. He played in 159 games his rookie season in 2023 and in 160 games last season.
“You want to be available for the team. That’s the way to be the best teammate,” Volpe said Friday, sounding very much the way his childhood idol, Derek Jeter. “Not just me, but everyone puts in a lot of work every single day to be able to go out there and compete for your team.”
Though his batting average and on-base percentage (.321) aren’t quite where he or the Yankees hoped it might be at this point of his career, Volpe has made incremental progress at the plate. He reached base in 49 of his 61 games and entered Saturday tied for eighth in the big leagues in doubles, with 27 of his 53 total hits this season going for extra bases. The righthanded hitter is slashing .323/.395/.508 against lefthanded pitchers this season.
In recalling his conversation earlier in the day with Volpe — as well as with Lentych — Boone indicated he did not give the player too much of a voice when it came to whether he would be in the lineup.
“I was there with him and Timmy when we were kind of going through some of the testing,” Boone said. “I said, ‘What do you think?’ I asked them both. And I think Timmy felt like he could play but said ‘I think another day of treating this would serve him well.’ And I agreed with that and I just said, ‘Yeah, let’s take today [off].’ He’ll be available if we need him, obviously, but I felt that was best.”
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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