The official announcement of Anthony Volpe has put a palpable buzz around the Yankees as they finish up Spring Training and get ready to head north.
But in Tiki Barber’s eyes, the buzz of Volpe is masking the fact that the Yankees still have one serious problem heading towards Opening Day.
“It’s hard not to get excited because this highly-touted prospect is finally in the major leagues,” Tiki said, “but that’s masking a serious issue with the Yankees that you can’t ignore: the starting rotation.”
Tiki & Tierney will be live at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, broadcasting their show ahead of our Yankees opening day coverage, and even Tiki admitted “it’s gonna be amazing” to be there and to see Volpe as the opening day shortstop.
But, the fact that now three-fifths of the Yankees rotation is injured – meaning Clarke Schmidt will start Game 2 and Jhony Brito is likely to pitch in one of the first few games – has to temper that optimism a bit.
“We saw Luis Severino has a lat injury that's gonna keep him out for a couple of weeks, and it’s not the shoulder or some reconstruction that are really damning, but it's kind of always the same with Severino,” Tiki said. “You throw in the fact that Frankie Montas is out, and that Carlos Rodon, even though they said he could pitch if he had to, is out for a month, and the Yankees essentially have had one healthy pitcher all spring.”
That would be Gerrit Cole, as Nestor Cortes also missed time early with a leg issue, and now, the Yankees are up against it, with No. 8 on the depth chart likely to make the Opening Day roster.
“Everybody else has been banged up, and Nestor is probably going to get pushed back because he’s a little bit behind everyone else, even though he's gonna have to be the second or third starter,” Tiki said. “This has to be a serious concern for the Yankees that’s kind of dampening the Anthony Volpe experience.”
BT couldn’t listen to any more, choosing to focus on the positive, saying Volpe is the kind of player who “can go 0-for-4 and still impact the game.”
“I’m incredibly pumped about that, and I don’t expect a real struggle, because there’s not many players like this,” BT said of Volpe. “The last ball he dented was against an opponent starting opening day, and I’m not saying the power carries over immediately, but his chase rate was incredibly low, too.”
And in praising Volpe, BT wondered if his ascension may change the way the Yankees operate with their remaining top prospects in the future.
“The kind knows the strike zone, he runs, he’s got pop, and he’s got a slow heartbeat, so I think he’ll be a major factor out of the chute,” BT said. “But the other thing is this: Jasson Dominguez was smartly sent down because he’s not ready, he’s only 19 and needs more at-bats…but now that Volpe's kind of cracked the code where if you perform, will you now have a pipeline for others to get the treatment Volpe got?”
Dominguez did perform but BT noted “he’s too young and raw,” and in fact only had a handful of games at Double-A late last year…but come 2024, you never know.
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