BRADENTON, Fla. — Spring training results alone will not decide the Yankees’ shortstop competition, but Anthony Volpe is not wasting any time putting them up anyway.
The club’s top prospect led off Thursday’s Grapefruit League game by smacking a home run off Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller at LECOM Park, the latest example of Volpe making his impact felt whenever he is on the field early in camp.
“It definitely felt good, but I was just trying to lead the game off strong and have a good at-bat for the team,” Volpe said after starting at second base and going 2-for-3 with a walk in the Yankees’ 9-1 win. “I saw a couple of his pitches pretty well, but just trying to put the ball on the bat with two strikes.”
Volpe worked a 2-2 count before Keller threw him an outside slider that he didn’t miss, crushing it 394 feet to left field. It was Volpe’s first home run of the spring, and after four games he is 4-for-11 (.364).
More importantly, Volpe has spent the four games flashing the tools that have been on his résumé during his rise through the Yankees’ farm system.
On Sunday against the Blue Jays, it was drilling two hits and stealing two bases. On Monday and Wednesday, it was putting his defense and baseball IQ on display at shortstop and second base.
And on Thursday, it was showing off the power that comes with his 5-foot-11, 180-pound frame.
“He’s strong,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s stout. Great lower half, stays in the ground really well. You see him kind of sit down in his legs.
“Doesn’t get cheated. He has a really good swing. He can drive the ball out the other way. He’s not tall, but he’s thick and pretty stout.”
Volpe still has a long way to go in his attempt to make the Yankees’ Opening Day roster, and plenty can happen before the team breaks camp that could alter the shortstop competition which also includes Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Oswald Peraza.
But if nothing else, Volpe is certainly giving the Yankees a lot to think about — not that what he has done through the first handful of games has surprised them.
“I got high expectations,” Boone said. “He’s come in and gotten after it, in line with the reputation he’s earned within our organization. Works hard.
“What I love is you can tell he loves the game. I think of our captain, Aaron Judge. One of the things that stands out is he loves the game. So you get into the little things.
“You’re watching, you’re looking, you’re, ‘Where can I find a little bit of an edge?’ He’s always doing that. You watch him on defense, you watch him on the base paths, he’s always working to find a little bit of an edge.
“Really hooked up, really locked in, an intensity he plays the game with, not only from the energy and the hustle he has, but there’s an energy to the way he’s playing and thinking the game. That’s evident.”
Of course, Volpe is not yet a finished product.
Boone pointed to a baserunning mistake the 21-year-old made in the fourth inning, when he was stealing on a pitch then, after the fly ball was caught in center field, did not retouch second base on his way back to first.
It did not come back to cost the Yankees, as Estevan Florial was thrown out at home for a double play that ended the inning.
An inning earlier, Volpe also bobbled a ground ball to second base but recovered in time to get the out at first.
Otherwise, it was the latest strong impression that Volpe left in his pursuit of making the team.
“[He’s] professional,” Aaron Hicks said. “That kid comes ready to go every single day. … That’s what you want to see in a young player: professionalism first and then see what kind of player he is after that. He seems to be ready for the task.”
