Anthony Volpe’s bat is making noise in Triple-A, and Jasson Domínguez just turned that noise into a headline.
Volpe has been on a ridiculous tear for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, homering five times over his last five games entering Saturday. That kind of run is hard to ignore anywhere, but especially for a player whose major league track record has been under a microscope. Domínguez, watching it unfold from the same clubhouse, reached for the biggest comparison possible.
"He became Barry Bonds all of a sudden," Jasson Domínguez said of Anthony Volpe, who entered today with 5 HR in his last 5 G at Triple-A.
The Martian added that Volpe is "working his ass off to to get better." #Yankees
- Gary Phillips (@GaryHPhillips) September 5, 2026
Domínguez was clearly joking around, but the point behind it lands. Volpe has been overwhelming Triple-A pitching, and right now he looks like a hitter who is simply too locked in for that level. For a former first-round pick, it’s a reminder that the bat talent everyone once talked about is still in there.
The Yankees, of course, are not short on moving parts. They’re set at shortstop with George Lombard Jr., but Volpe could still factor at second base if New York wants another look at him in September or October.
Third base, though? That’s not the place to go.
His glove is not what’s driving the conversation anyway. It’s the bat, and the numbers in Scranton back it up. Volpe has 11 homers and a .948 OPS in 139 at-bats this year, and his recent power binge has pushed some to argue he’d be a better platoon option than Amed Rosario right now.
That’s where the debate gets interesting. Volpe’s critics can point to the .224 career MLB batting average, the .660 career OPS, and the defense that has dipped since his 2023 Gold Glove season. Those concerns aren’t going away just because he’s tearing up Triple-A.
But the flip side is impossible to dismiss: he’s producing loudly after a demotion that could have rattled him. Instead, he’s answered with authority.
Volpe never matched the 21 home runs from his rookie season in any of his next MLB campaigns, which led plenty of people to treat that year like the outlier. Now, at least for the moment, he’s giving the Yankees a reason to wonder if the power is coming back.
Domínguez’s Barry Bonds line was exaggerated, sure. But it also captured the larger story: Volpe is seeing the ball well, hitting it hard, and reminding everybody that there’s still real offensive upside here. For a Yankees club thinking about a playoff push in 2026, that matters.
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