Keith says Yankees 'got cute' with moving Anthony Volpe to leadoff: 'I didn't want him moved'
Anthony Volpe recorded just one hit in the Yankees’ three-game set in Toronto, logging just a single in 13 at-bats while striking out five times.
As Volpe and the Yanks return home to the Bronx, Keith says the Bombers may have made a mistake in moving Volpe up to the leadoff spot so quickly.
“I didn’t want him moved,” Keith said. “They moved him around too much his rookie year. I felt like it was a premature move this year, and now you can’t move him. Now he’s your leadoff hitter.
“I know he puts in the work and he’s trying, but he already looks different facing Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi.”
Keith said before Volpe was moved to leadoff that he would have let the young shortstop stay down in the lineup while he was thriving, and he believes that even more now.
“I look at the Yankees like they got cute,” Keith said. “It was effective. For once, we had a lineup, it felt balanced, same guys in the same spot every day…I would have rather seen them move Alex Verdugo, a guy who hit leadoff at times for the Red Sox…let the kid continue to build on his hot start. Instead, you put the pressure on the kid to face everybody’s ace first. And now he’s pressing, he’s grounding out, he’s striking out.”
