Anthony Volpe is giving the Yankees a reason to pay attention again, but the latest wrinkle in his defensive rollout raises a real question about whether New York is helping or hurting that momentum.
Since returning to Triple-A Scranton, Volpe has looked like a different hitter. In 23 games, he’s batting .276 with a 1.008 OPS, along with eight homers and 16 RBI. That power surge stands out because it was missing for the rest of his 2026 campaign before the demotion.
The Yankees had already signaled a broader plan for him once George Lombard Jr. took over at shortstop. Aaron Boone said Volpe would get work at both shortstop and second base in Scranton, and that made plenty of sense.
The organization wanted him to build versatility, and the move to second base fits the profile. His range plays there, and the things that give him trouble at shortstop are easier to cover up at the keystone.
But New York has taken it a step further and started giving Volpe reps at third base, too, and that’s where the logic starts to wobble.
The Yankees do have a need at third. Ryan McMahon has steadied things enough against right-handed pitching that his glove makes him workable on the strong side of a platoon, but his .462 OPS against lefties makes him unplayable in those matchups. Amed Rosario hasn’t solved the other half of that problem either, with a .610 OPS against lefties and defense that drags his value down to basically nothing.
Even so, Volpe doesn’t look like the answer there. His defensive value comes from range, and that matters less at third base than it does in the middle infield.
The bigger issue is the arm. If the concern at shortstop was already about his throwing strength, moving him farther from first base does not solve it.
Volpe’s average arm strength this season was 79 miles per hour, which ranked in the 14th percentile. That wasn’t a one-off, either.
His arm strength ranked in the 33rd percentile last season, the 29th percentile in 2024, and the 28th percentile in 2023. Last year, his 13 throwing errors were the third-most among qualified shortstops.
That’s why the second-base plan makes sense and the third-base experiment doesn’t. Second base lets the Yankees use what Volpe does well without forcing the weakest part of his game into a tougher spotlight. Third base does the opposite.
And with Volpe finally catching fire at the plate, that matters. The Yankees are trying to build on a hot stretch, not knock him off it by piling on another position that doesn’t fit.
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