Shortly after the Yankees wrap up their 2022 opener in the Bronx on Friday afternoon, Anthony Volpe and the Double-A Somerset Patriots will get their season going in central Pennsylvania, taking on Reading in Game 1 of the Eastern League campaign.
And that will be the beginning of a huge season for Volpe, who is now the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect and appears to be the heir apparent at a spot that has housed names like Jeter, Rizzuto, Kubek and Dent.
“It’s going to be an awesome challenge, but one I really prepared for this offseason and in Spring Training,” Volpe said Wednesday during Somerset’s media day at TD Ballpark. “I worked on everything. I’m only 20, and I have a lot of areas to improve on, so I worked on everything from my hitting consistency to my routines. I’m excited to put those adjustments to use.”
Volpe’s career has been quite the roller coaster so far, not even through his own doing. He was still playing for Delbarton School when he was drafted in the first round in 2019, and when that season ended, he went to the now-defunct Advanced Rookie-level affiliate in Pulaski, Virginia, where he struggled in 34 games before mononucleosis ended his season.
And then, it would be more than 18 months before he would take the field in a meaningful game again, as the minor-league season was shut down in 2020 due to COVID. That, however, was a blessing in disguise for a kid who was barely 19 and in a whole new world.
“In the moment it was tough, but taking a couple steps back and looking at what I could do last year gives me a little confidence I can build off of that,” Volpe said of his year off. “In 2019, I didn’t know myself enough to make adjustments, so just learning as much as I could about myself as a player put me in a good position for last year.”
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Adjust he did, as Volpe slashed .294/.423/.604 with 27 homers, 86 RBI, 33 steals, and a minor-league leading 113 runs scored in 109 games between Low-A Tampa and High-A Hudson Valley. That, too, brought him into a whole new world, as he went from the high school schedule and a rough first taste of pro ball into a full season of baseball after a whole year-plus off.
Just like everything, it seems, Volpe aced that test.
“I was pretty happy with my consistency, showing up every day ready to compete and doing what I needed to do to keep my body feeling good,” he said. “There was the mystery of the unknown being that first full year, but getting a full season under my belt really taught me a lot about how to go about my business.”
This winter, Volpe took all of a week off before getting back to the grind – “I had the itch,” he smiled – and he worked out all offseason with a small group of fellow prospects who stayed up in the Northeast.
The jump to Double-A is considered perhaps the hardest outside the jump from Triple-A to MLB, and there may be some extra pressure from the outside on Volpe now that he’s a Top 10 prospect in baseball and the Yankees eschewed the best free agent shortstop class in history to keep the spot open – but if he’s feeling it, he’s not showing it, and he’s certainly not going to dog it.
“We were training every day, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to make (getting to MLB) a reality,” Volpe said. “There’s a long way for me to go between now and then, and I don’t want anything handed to me or promised to me. It’s going to be a challenge, but I couldn’t be more confident going into the season knowing we had to face the best of the best pitchers every day in Spring Training, and it’s a unique opportunity that all the benefits outweigh the outside pressure.”
He’s not worried about prospect status, or his future, or anything outside the day-to-day of succeeding in Double-A, but he will face something interesting when the Patriots return home next week: the ability to have friends and family finally see him in action for the first time.
Volpe is, of course, from Watchung, about a half-hour away from TD Ballpark, so he’ll be sleeping in his own bed every night before he lives out his dream as a professional baseball player. He hadn’t had a chance to get back to his alma mater – Delbarton’s game scheduled for Wednesday was rained out – but he’s looking forward to playing in a ballpark he saw a lot of Atlantic League games in (with a franchise a lot of his coaches coming up played for) and in front of anyone and everyone he knows and loves.
“It’s gonna be cool. It feels like yesterday I was playing for Delbarton, but I’m just as excited to play in front of family and friends as they are to watch,” he smiled. “I’m definitely a homebody, and a lot of family hasn’t seen me the last couple years because of COVID restrictions, so I’m excited.”
So, too, it seems, are his teammates and manager Dan Fiorito, who confirmed Volpe will be his leadoff hitter this season.
"It'll be a great thing. His family was close last year, and they made some trips to Hudson Valley and to Brooklyn, but now to be even closer, I know he's super excited about having all the fans and his family out at Opening Day on Tuesday,” Fiorito said. “He embraces it, he loves it, his family is super close with him and it's been great to for me to get a chance to meet them and see how much they care about him. Anthony loves it, and it's going to be a special year for him."
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