For the second time in little more than a week, Yankees star shortstop Anthony Volpe was benched by manager Aaron Boone, in hopes that some rest might just help the struggling shortstop, who has just two hits in his last 25 at-bats and has seen his batting average drop eight points in September.
Indeed, though Volpe continues to be a plus with his glove, he has not taken the steps forward the team had hoped he might take this season, as he is now batting .246 with an on-base percentage of .294 and a .369 slugging percentage. He was not a wizard with the bat during his impressive rookie season, either, when he hit .209 for the year.
But he logged 21 home runs last season. This year, that’s down to 11.
“I’m confident he’ll work through it,” Boone said Tuesday, via the New York Post. “He’s been clearly up and down from that standpoint throughout the season. He’s made some noticeable adjustments over the winter and into the season that’s had some good results, but he’s had some struggles with it, too. I do feel like it’s on his way to being a complete product — whenever that is — as an offensive player.
“But I feel like he can work through this and hopefully get on a good note going into what we hope is October baseball and beyond.”
Yankees Made Lineup Adjustment After Hot Start
Volpe has bounced around the batting lineup throughout the year, and got off to such a good start with the Yankees—he was batting .290 with an .803 OPS on June 5—that Boone bumped him all the way to the leadoff spot. That experiment lasted into early July, when Volpe was dropped to No. 6.
He has mostly been the No. 8 hitter here in September.
Early in the year, Volpe got plaudits from Boone and hitting coach James Rowson for his improved approach—more discipline, more walks, fewer strikeouts—and better swing path through the zone. Volpe was looking to drive the ball more, rather than upswinging and trying to lift the ball.
The early results were promising, as Boone mentioned. But Volpe has struggled to maintain that rhythm and is a concern heading into the MLB playoffs.
He has drawn just 38 walks on the year, down from 52 last season. Fourteen of those walks came in the season’s first month.
The strikeout issue persists: Volpe has struck out 147 times, which is down from the 167 strikeouts he had last year. But he still strikes out in nearly 25% of his at-bats, not enough of an improvement from last year’s 31% rate.
Anthony Volpe Still Valuable at Short
Again, Volpe is a defending Gold Glover at shortstop, and that’s where he adds value to this roster, no matter his struggles with the bat.
The advanced metrics differ on whether he’s been much better or not quite as good as last season, as Baseball Reference rates his “zone fielding runs above average” at a 4, which is seventh in the American League and down from the league-best 11 he rated last year.
But FanGraphs has Volpe with 15 “outs above average,” which ranks No. 2 in the league this season. Last year, he had an OAA of 1, which was tied for seventh.
Metrics on fielding are notoriously fickle, though, and the eye test certainly would say that Volpe is still a top-rated fielder—even as the Yankees star struggles with the bat.
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