We’re sure that, given their own respective Major League Baseball journeys, former All-Star first baseman Sean Casey and longtime New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez could find plenty to agree on.
Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe is not one of them.
Rodriguez turned heads last week when he said that Volpe, the Yankees’ embattled third-year infielder, isn’t playing “winning baseball.” Volpe leads the American League with 13 errors, a major reason why the struggling Yankees have dropped to four games back in the AL East.
Rodriguez also said he’d rather have Derek Jeter’s overall play style than that of Volpe, who has 13 home runs and a 23.4 strikeout percentage; Jeter, meanwhile, averaged 15 homers and a 14.6 strikeout percentage in his 20 seasons.
Speaking on his podcast this week, Casey said that “not everybody” is Rodriguez or Jeter.
“Anthony Volpe is going to be just fine,” argued Casey, who worked with Volpe as the Yankees’ interim hitting coach in 2023.
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“Nobody works harder than he does,” Casey continued. “He’s in the cages all the time, has a great routine, he knows what he’s doing.”
Volpe is only seven RBIs shy of a career-high 61, and his .686 OPS is above his career .667 average. However, his batting average has dropped nearly 30 points, and manager Aaron Boone recently dropped Volpe in the batting order.
What will the Yankees do with Anthony Volpe?
Barring an unprecedented and uncharacteristic change of plans, the Yankees are sticking with Volpe through the end of 2025. There’s no reason to think that general manager Brian Cashman will trade Volpe over the offseason, even if teams are willing to sell the farm for a talented 24-year-old shortstop.
The Yankees have repeatedly publicly committed to Volpe since his 2023 debut. There have never been any credible reports about the team considering demoting him to Triple-A or benching him for the likes of Isiah Kiner-Falefa (now with the Pirates) or Oswald Peraza.
Casey said he believes Volpe will get hot soon, noting that the 2019 first-round pick is on pace for roughly 85 RBIs.
“Isn’t the job in baseball to score more runs than the other team?” Casey asked. “Isn’t that what it is? You want guys that drive in runs. … I’m going to take that.”
Considering that top shortstop prospect George Lombard Jr. is only batting .211 in 274 Double-A plate appearances, it feels unlikely that we’ll see him in the majors this year. Volpe’s shortstop job is his to lose — and if he hasn’t lost it yet, why would anyone expect that to change before the season ends?