Anthony Volpe is the Yankees’ Opening Day shortstop, and there’s no doubt about it, from anyone you talk to, that he earned the job.
But in Boomer Esiason’s eyes, there’s more than just performance that helped the Yankees decide.
“There’s two things at play here; number one, the young man earned it, there’s no question about that,” Boomer said, “but number two, don't think that the Yankees don't hear the fan base screaming that they don't want to see Isiah Kiner-Falefa, they want this guy here and they want him playing.”
For now, IKF seems to have made the team as a utility player, the backup shortstop for sure after Oswald Peraza was optioned to Triple-A. The Yankees acquired him prior to last season as a stopgap, but after just one year of his two left before free agency, the future arrived perhaps a bit early.
“(Volpe’s arrival) gives them a little bit of this youth movement; hopefully he’s one of these long-term core players like Aaron Judge has turned out to be, and a couple of other guys never lived up to that,” Boomer said. “I can’t remember – maybe Aaron Judge was the last time, when he came up and he was the only reason to watch the Yankees because of the home runs, or maybe in the mid-1990s when the Core Four all came up – but I can’t remember the last time a fan base has been this excited about the potential of a rookie, and he plays the most important position on the field.”
Volpe likely won’t hit .314 this year like he has this spring – although it’s never out of the realm of possibility – but there is one thing he’ll bring no matter his performance.
“The Yankees need energy,” Gio said. “I know Aaron Judge is back, and if they would have lost him would have been devastating, and he's the captain now – but the Yankees need a spark; they need energy, they need something about them, especially with all the injuries.”
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That list grew with the news over the weekend that Luis Severino will start on the IL due to a lat strain, and unfortunately, that's a little bit of the same old, same old, or so it seems.
“The thoughts of Severino being healthy and having a full season and giving you like a bunch of starts without being gone for months is now evaporated, at least in the early going,” Gio said. “They have a ton of injuries, and this team has just felt stale the last couple years.”
And it’s Volpe, the first rookie to start for the Yankees on Opening Day since a guy named Jeter, who will bring the freshness.
“After the great start last year, things sort of went south, and we know how it ended with getting swept by the Astros,” Gio said. “But this right here, this Volpe situation, provides that spark that they've been missing for a long time.”
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