Yankees Mag: Quick Hit

Opening Day was a dream for Anthony Volpe, whose smile shined bright as the sun on that late March afternoon, but the rest of 2023 was a lesson in the roller-coaster life of a Major Leaguer. One of the best shortstops in the game all year, Volpe thrilled on the basepaths and became the first Yankees rookie to post a 20-home run/20-steal season. But he endured some slumps that kept his batting average down around .200 for much of the year and was part of a team that entered September in last place, albeit still fighting for a playoff berth.

The Yankees’ first-round pick (30th overall) in 2019 rose to top-prospect status in 2022 while spending most of the year playing Double-A ball at Somerset, just a few miles from his home in Watchung, New Jersey. (His family even housed the shortstop and several of his teammates.) By the time the 2023 regular season neared an end, though, the 22-year-old Volpe got to play the role of big league “veteran,” welcoming several September callups, among them Austin Wells and Jasson Domínguez, to The Show. To Yankees manager Aaron Boone, it was a huge benefit to have a friendly face around during one of the most tumultuous periods of a player’s career.

“I think it’s probably something real there,” Boone said. “Seeing his success, seeing him deal with everything at this level and all that comes into being the Yankees’ shortstop, and the kind of class and grace and the quality with which he’s handled it all, I think Anthony’s developed that reputation coming through the Minors as an example-setter, as a leader. So, I’m sure there’s some comfort in seeing him here.”

As September rolled along, Volpe stopped by to chat with Yankees Magazine deputy editor Jon Schwartz for an episode of the New York Yankees Official Podcast. The two discussed the thrills and challenges of a big league debut, the goals for the future and the quiet role a big league big brother played in Volpe’s successful rookie season.

Yankees Magazine: If we go back to March, to the emotion on your face in that moment when you took the field for the first time -- you’ve done that nearly 150 more times since then. Does it feel normal yet when you walk onto the field at Yankee Stadium?

Anthony Volpe: I don’t think that really has set in. But I think the feeling of going out and competing and feeling like maybe I’m part of the team, and brought in by my teammates, just looking to my left and right and seeing guys that I looked up to and was huge fans of? I think the feeling of that, shifting from maybe feeling a little uncomfortable, to them just being my teammates, definitely feels a lot more normal.

YM: And that’s the thing -- it must be so crazy. You know who Aaron Judge is in the city of New York. But to you, he’s the guy who, maybe you’re on second base when he’s at the plate. Gerrit Cole is the guy who’s on the mound when you’re playing shortstop. That’s surreal!

AV: Definitely. And I think that’s what feels more normal now. Even just saying that to friends and family, saying who I hit with for the day, or who I fielded ground balls with, I just say it casually, and they take a step back and are amazed.

YM: “That’s my coworker, Aaron Judge …” Five months in, what’s the best part about the big leagues?

AV: Everything about it. It’s just so much fun. It’s fun to play every night and play in front of the fans. Every city we go to, how we’re received -- and I kind of like when we’re not received really well! That’s what takes it to the next level: the fans.

YM: If you look at this first season, is there one part of your game that you feel the most pleased about the way it has developed from April to now?

AV: Over the course of the season, you’re going to have ups and downs. And I think especially when you get off to not the start you wanted to, there’s a lot of room for improvement. But I think the way that the team has taken me in, early in the season, there was a lot of information coming in, people trying to help. It’s one thing to try and take it in and work on it before the game. But I feel like earlier in the year, I wasn’t necessarily able to translate it into a big league game, the little things I’m picking up, the video I’m watching, different stuff like that. So, I’ve been pretty pleased with the improvements I’ve been able to make and translating them into the game during the season. Because over the course of the season, it definitely is hard to work on stuff and be able to compete at 7 o’clock every day.

YM: You have this manic energy on the basepaths. I know that this is probably a million times more complicated than anything you can say in a one-minute answer, but how do you maintain balance, composure and your mental sense of where you are at any moment when you’re jumping around like that?

AV: I think a lot of credit goes to Matt Talarico, who’s our baserunning coordinator all throughout the organization, and then Travis Chapman, our infield and baserunning coach up here. We just work on it. Every single day, we’re walking out our leads, we’re diving back in the bases in the morning in Spring Training, stuff like that. And then during the season, we put a lot of work into the technique, the same way we do with hitting, the same way we do with defense. We do scouting reports on the pitchers and watch videos and try and look for openings that lower the risk and increase the ability to get to second base.

YM: You look at the other side of the game, a guy like Aaron Judge, it’s very easy to see where Judge’s power comes from or where Giancarlo Stanton’s power comes from. Respectfully, you’re not their size. If you connect and put it over the fence, do you think that is a testament to a perfectly efficient swing on your part and not just brute force? Or am I underestimating your strength?

AV: Yeah, I mean, no one is Judgey and Big G’s size. But I feel like there’s a lot of guys in the league that are even smaller than me that put up a lot bigger numbers across the board. But in a lot of ways, the name of the game in baseball is to take the easiest swing you can and get it to produce the hardest results. And for me, as the season has gone forward, Sean Casey has helped me a lot with trying to take the smoothest, most efficient and low-effort swing and see how hard I can hit it doing that. And I feel like when you talk to even our bigger guys, and you watch them take BP, no one’s trying to hit home runs or crush the ball or do anything like that. I think having that approach and doing certain things throughout the day to get ready for the pitcher you’re facing helps a lot.

YM: Sure, and you know this stuff. But your average exit velocity right now is 140th in the league. Your max exit velocity is 204th. Yet your sweet spot percentage is in the 77th percentile. Obviously, that’s the name of it, right? You’re trying to put good contact on the ball. And because you’ve been doing this all your life and you’re pretty good at it, sometimes it goes over the wall. Is that it?

AV: Ideally, yeah. I’ve never gone up to the plate trying to hit a home run or trying to hit it as hard as I possibly can. But it’s definitely nice when you feel like you have a sound approach, and then you’re just trying to put the barrel on the ball. When you start seeing those going over the fence, it’s like the cherry on top.

YM: As you sit here right now and think about the story of your career someday being told, what role do you think Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s mentorship this year will play?

AV: He’s one of the best people I’ve ever been around. And the way he has taken me in -- “showing me the ropes” doesn’t really do it justice. He goes out of his way every single day to make sure I’m doing what I need to do, that I am where I need to be. It’s just the littlest things that it’s hard for me to even say off the top of my head because it feels like he was my bigger brother in the clubhouse. We’re locker mates. We sit next to each other on the plane. Every step of the way, it’s like he’s got his arm around me.

YM: Similarly, over the last few weeks here, you’ve had some of your buddies from your Minor League days getting called up. What’s it like for you to get to welcome them to the Majors?

AV: In a way, I get to live through them, and I know the emotions that they’re experiencing and the whirlwind of it all. It gives you time to reflect on when you got to go through it yourself; how I felt or how I reacted or how I experienced everything. So, I just couldn’t be happier for all of them.

YM: When you’re a top prospect, whether you’re Anthony Volpe or Jasson Domínguez or Aaron Judge, you’re like this mythical being. You’re written about as though you’re not real, but you’re going to come here and you’re going to save everything, right? How do you think that you were able to deal with that so well?

AV: Well, thanks!

YM: But you did! You earned your spot here. You weren’t just handed it in Spring Training this year.

AV: For me, it was just an opportunity I always wanted and worked for and dreamed of. It just felt like such an amazing opportunity, and I wanted to take advantage of it. There have been so many great guys in that clubhouse that have helped me along and, through the ups and downs, have kept me going. And the main thing, since Opening Day, was just trying to help the team win. Obviously, it’s been a tough season. But I feel like that mindset and approaching every day that way, doing everything you can in the littlest way to try to impact the game and help the team win, it definitely helped.

YM: As you were going through last year, as you were kind of getting close, how much comfort did you take from being at home, being around family, even being able to host your teammates in your family’s house? I know nothing’s apples to apples, but you look at Jasson, a young kid in a totally different country, learning English, finding his way. Meanwhile, you’re eating your parents’ cooking. No one’s rise here is easy, but how much comfort did you take from that?

AV: I think my whole Minor League and -- so far -- my Major League career has been unique. And it was amazing. Talking to some guys that are now in the position that I was in last year, you kind of get the sense that they’re not really living in the present. But being in that unique situation and setup, it was just so much fun to enjoy that and live in the moment and experience everything. I’d never been home for a summer since before I was in middle school. And I was home, playing 15 minutes away. My family got to go to all the games, friends got to go to all the games and hang out. We had Sunday day games and Monday off-days, so we’d do stuff that I never got to do pretty much from middle school, high school, everything. So, it was a lot of fun. And I felt like it just helped in everything. I never really wanted to not be where I was. Obviously, you’re working to achieve the bigger goal and the higher goal. But all the negative outside noise never really got in.

YM: How did struggling early this year impact you, both on the team level and also on a personal level? What were you able to learn from going through very visible struggles?

AV: When you’re having success, it’s easy. Everyone’s in a good mood when everyone’s doing well. But I think you kind of see what guys are made of when you face adversity. You have to be resilient. You really see who’s going to fold or who’s going to have a bad attitude and stuff like that. I think as a team, obviously, we were all frustrated. We all work really hard, and we all have high expectations of ourselves. And there’s a standard here, as there should be. We recognize that we’re frustrated, and we’ve got to be better, and we’ve got to perform and win a lot more games. But at the same time, it wasn’t toxic. Everyone still knows that we can improve.

YM: Aaron Judge is always very consistent about saying that if you don’t win the World Series, then the season is a failure. Different people can feel different ways about that, and I’m not going to put you on the spot about that specific question. What I will ask you is, putting on your Aaron Judge hat for a second here, if the 2024 Yankees win the World Series, partly on account of a lot of the things that you and your fellow rookies were able to learn this year, a lot of the experiences you all were able to gain, and certainly some better injury luck, can that redeem the frustrations of this year? Would that make it something less of a failure?

AV: Definitely a good question. I feel like everything you do, every single day, you’re learning from. Through every experience I’ve had this year, I felt like I’ve become a way better player, person, professional, everything. We still feel like we want to do something special down the stretch here. But we feel like we’ve got a lot of really good stuff in the clubhouse, and you just want to keep building off that, and it’s World Series or nothing here, so that’s what we’re all striving for.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Jon Schwartz is the deputy editor for Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the October 2023 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications_._