Before the Yankees lost another game and their division lead fell to one game on Tuesday, Aaron Boone sat in the visitors’ dugout at Rogers Centre fielding questions from the media. Meredith Markaovits asked him about the performance of Anthony Volpe and Boone went into an extended spiel full of inaccuracies, misinformation and general bullshit about his shortstop, who he has defended unlike any other player on the roster since the start of 2023. Let’s go through each part of it.
“Now we’re talking offensive side of the ball? I think he can be a really good player in this league. I think that’s what he’s been so far.”
Boone says he thinks Volpe can be a really good player in this league. Then he says that’s what Volpe has been. So if he has already been a really good player then there’s no need for Boone to think he can be one?
“His third year in, it hasn’t been the ascension some people want.”
It’s not uncommon for Boone to use words he clearly doesn’t know the meaning of. “Ascension” means “rising or increasing to higher levels” or “mounting or sloping upward.” Boone used the word to describe Volpe’s development as a player. The problem is Volpe hasn’t “risen to a higher level” and he’s certainly not “sloping upward.” At best, he’s the same player in 2025 that he was in 2023 and 2024, but someone saying he’s been worse is also an acceptable answer.
In 2025, Volpe is on pace to score more runs than he scored in 2023, but less than he scored in 2024. He’s on pace to record more hits than he did in 2023, but less than he did in 2024. He’s on pace to hit more home runs than he hit in 2024, but less than he hit in 2023. He’s on pace to steal less bases than he did in 2023 and 2024. He has already been caught stealing more times than he was in 2023 and as many times as he was in 2024. He leads the league in errors (11) and is going to shatter his 2023 (17) and 2024 (16) totals. He’s going to set a new career high for doubles and may strike out less times than he did in the last two seasons (it’s going to be close compared to last year), but other than that, he’s been mostly the same or worse.
“I get that. But the reality is he’s 24 and a really productive player and been a really productive player this year. Like that’s important to know while everyone loses their mind about things. He’s like a really good, productive player.”
Yes, everyone is losing their mind about Volpe, and everyone is wrong. The Yankees aren’t wrong. The front office isn’t wrong. Boone isn’t wrong. Everyone else who has watched Volpe play baseball every day for two-and-a-half seasons is wrong.
The Volpe Fan Club will use his WAR to argue how valuable he has been. But they won’t tell you how much of his WAR is from defense. If you play every day and you play shortstop every day, you’re going to accumulate defensive WAR. Volpe is a defensive WAR compiler. And because defensive metrics are all over the place in terms of determining actual value, it really can’t be trusted.
Defensive shortstops grow on trees. The Yankees’ best defensive shortstop is Oswald Peraza. Peraza doesn’t play because he can’t hit. But he’s never been given consistent at-bats in the majors to prove if he can hit. Maybe if he had been given 1,631 consistent plate appearances like Volpe has been given, we would know. But we’ll never know. And yes, I would rather have Peraza play over Volpe knowing that every ball hit to short will result in an out, and not a bobble, boot or errant throw. Peraza may not be able to hit, but Volpe can’t either, but at least the defense would be reliable.
“Even offensively, through some of his struggles this year he’s been a better-than-league-average performer at any position let alone the shortstop position.”
My favorite part of it at all. Last year, Boone provided a similar monologue in defense of Volpe and mentioned how he was better than league average. It was a lie then (Volpe was 14 percent worse than league average in 2024), and it’s a lie now as Volpe has been one percent worse than league average in 2025.
Volpe is hitting .225/.306/.406 on the season. He is hitting .215/.299/.362 since April 6. His entire slash line is being propped up by the first eight games of the season when he went 10-for-33 with three doubles and four home runs. He did the same thing last year when he went 15-for-36 with three doubles and two home runs in the first 10 games of 2024 and then sucked for 150 games.
First 10 games of 2024: .417/.488/.667 (1.154 OPS)
Next 150 games of 2024: .233/.281/.346 (.627 OPS)
First eight games of 2025: .303/.361/.758 (1.119 OPS)
Next 76 games of 2025: .215/.299/.362 (.662 OPS)
It took a while for Volpe’s overall OPS+ to fall below league average where it is now because of the first week of the season when he fooled everyone into thinking he figured out the majors for the second straight season, but he’s been below league average for nearly three months.
Here are Volpe’s ranks among shortstops:
Plate Appearances: 13th
Batting Average: 23rd
On-Base Percentage: 19th
Slugging Percentage: 14th
OPS: 17th
Runs: 20th
Hits: 22nd
Doubles: 2nd
Home Runs: 14th
Walks: 6th
Strikeouts: 6th
Stolen Bases: 17th
Caught Stealing: 1st
“So we’re fortunate to have a really good one in Anthony Volpe. That doesn’t mean we don’t expect and want him to continue to get better and better and he’s 24.”
Are the Yankees really fortunate to have Volpe? At the start of 2023, he was the Yankees’ top prospect and the fifth-ranked prospect in all of baseball. The Yankees passed on the deepest shortstop free-agent class in history because they had evaluated him to be a franchise player and their shortstop for the next decade-plus. He’s still likely to be their shortstop for a decade because we have seen how long Brian Cashman and Boone have remained in their positions and how long players the front office loved a lot less than Volpe kept their roster spots. Because of the prospect pedigree Volpe came with and the subsequent roster decisions made to cater to him because of the belief in him, him ending up being what he is now or having a ceiling of being league average is a disaster.
“Everyone’s trajectory is a little bit different. You see late bloomers sometimes offensively. Sometimes you see a steady ascent.”
Yes, every player’s trajectory is different. There has been no steady ascent because there has been no ascent. Volpe is the same player he was two years ago with less power and less speed. And if he ends up being a late bloomer, I’m sure the Yankees will find out since they have no immediate contingency plan for him to be replaced. They made sure to not create any potential competition for the role, so that it could be his. Peraza barely gets to play, and when he does play, he plays second base or third base, so the inferior defender and arm of Volpe can remain at short. They have kept Peraza in the majors playing infrequently and his bat remains unused and untested. If he were playing every day in Triple-A this season and hitting well, the calls for him to become the everyday shortstop would be extremely loud and the Yankees can’t have that. So he’s stuck on the bench, wasting away and waiting for his inevitable release from the team like every “top” prospect before him not named Volpe that was too good for the Yankees to include in a trade, but not good enough to play for the Yankees.
“I think he’s a better offensive player now than he was last year and the year before and hopefully that plays itself out the rest of the way.”
Sorry, Boone, he’s not. He’s no better in 2025 than he was in 2024 or 2023. The rest of the way I don’t expect him to be anything more than a below-league-average hitter, which is what he has been through 1,631 career plate appearances. And I don’t expect him to ever losing playing time for it.
Last modified: Jul 2, 2025
