After a promising 18-game stretch in June that saw Anthony Volpe hit .379 with a 1.050 OPS, many thought the promising rookie had finally turned the corner after struggling at the start of his first big league season.
Instead, the 22-year-old fell right back into a slump, and has an OPS of just .509 since that 18-game stretch.
With nearly 400 plate appearances under his belt, Keith says Volpe can’t be seen as a rookie anymore, and excuses for his rough rookie year are running out. But if there is some blame to go around, the Yankees themselves should take the brunt of it.
“Love Volpe. I feel like they did this kid wrong,” Keith said (at the 24:48 mark of the above clip). “I feel like they forced this kid to learn at this level because of the marketing plan, because of the local ties, because there's a picture that exists of him at like seven years old with Derek Jeter.”
Volpe was a sensation at the start of the season, from the viral video of him learning he had been called up to be the team’s Opening Day shortstop, a dream he held as a New York native and a resident of nearby New Jersey. The Jeter/Volpe parallels wrote themselves, and Keith said the Yankees leaned into it, so much so that his growth was stunted as the team continued to run Volpe out there, hoping he would meet the Jeter-like expectations.
“The Yankees really have leaned into this whole ‘Today, tomorrow forever’ thing,” Keith said. “Since they signed Gerrit Cole, who grew up a Yankees fan.”
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