TAMPA, Fla. — Shortly after the Yankees’ Sunday spring training game against the Blue Jays, the team’s shot-callers asked Anthony Volpe to stick around. He swears it’s the only time he’s felt his heart beat all spring.
Volpe, who has insisted that he hasn’t allowed the Yankees’ shortstop competition with Oswald Peraza to consume him, finally received the official verdict: he made the Bombers’ Opening Day roster.
“Being able to compete helped me take my mind off everything that I really couldn’t control,” Volpe said moments after Aaron Boone delivered the life-changing news. “But for it all to come to fruition like this is pretty crazy.
“If I had a heart rate monitor on, it would be probably my max-ever heart rate.”
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, bench coach Carlos Mendoza and hitting coach Dillon Lawson were also in the room for the No. 1 prospect’s big break.
“We entered camp with an open competition. We said it publicly and we said it privately,” Cashman said via audio released by the team. “Anthony Volpe came into camp and took this position.”
Cashman added that Volpe voluntarily showed up in Tampa back in September to start the process of winning the job, though it was his spring training performance that made this an easy decision. The 21-year-old shined on both sides of the ball, slashing .314/.417/.647 with six doubles, one triple, three homers, five RBI and five stolen bases.
Boone, however, said that Volpe’s intangibles also made a difference.
“He earned the respect of the veterans in the room,” the manager said in more team audio. “His work is excellent. There’s an energy he plays the game with, and an instinct that he has that’s evident. When we take a step back and evaluate, he really checked every box that we could have had for him, and absolutely kicked the door in and earned this opportunity.”
The Yankees’ captain agreed with that sentiment wholeheartedly on Saturday.
“He just shows up ready to work. He’s prepared. Very rarely do you see that at such a young age,” Aaron Judge said. “He’s seemed ready to go every single game I’ve play behind him.”
Peraza, meanwhile, struggled at the plate this spring after a successful cup of coffee in the majors last September and a few postseason starts. He was optioned to Triple-A on Sunday. However, the 22-year-old had a sense that Volpe was going to make the team before it was announced.
“At the end of the day, we both want to play in the big leagues, and that’s why I keep going back to doing everything that we need to do to be ready for when that opportunity comes,” Peraza said after the Yankees’ Sunday win over the Blue Jays. “When you look at the results that [Volpe] has gotten, it’s really, really good results. Everybody has seen it. He has a bright future ahead of him. I can see it. Everybody can see it.”
Volpe, who grew up a Yankees fan in Watchung, New Jersey, spent his childhood idolizing Derek Jeter. Like countless baseball-loving children in the area, he wanted to be just like the Yankees’ Hall of Fame shortstop. Now he’ll man the position No. 2 used to roam.
“I’m probably the same as a lot of kids my age, a lot of my classmates, a lot of my teammates,” Volpe acknowledged. “This was all our dream. For it to come to reality, it’s hard to put into words.
“It’s super surreal.”
Shortly after Volpe realized his dream, he took photos with his emotional family at George M. Steinbrenner Field and FaceTimed his grandparents. He already had a “Last Supper” planned with his spring training roommates, minor leaguers Austin Wells, Mickey Gasper, Max Burt and Spencer Henson, as Sunday is the last night of camp. Now that meal will come with a reason to celebrate.
And as for sleep? Volpe said there’s “no chance” he’ll get any Sunday night, though he’s slated to play in the Yankees’ final game in Tampa on Monday.
It’s Thursday, Opening Day against the Giants, that the neophyte needs to rest for, though. Volpe will become the first rookie to crack an Opening Day Yankees lineup since Judge did it in 2017.
Volpe has only played in 22 games at Triple-A, but his next official contest will take place at Yankee Stadium. Once he takes the field, he plans on returning to his all-business approach.
“I just want to go out there and compete and play my role on the team and help the team win,” Volpe said. “Right now, it’s crazy when I don’t even know what lies ahead, but Thursday, I just want to go out and play and have fun.”
