Anthony Volpe’s journey through his first three seasons in the Bronx has been anything but straightforward. The New York Yankees shortstop has shown flashes of the player fans hoped he’d become-but he’s also battled through stretches where the expectations felt like a weight on his shoulders. Now, heading into a pivotal point in his young career, Yankees manager Aaron Boone is still betting on Volpe to figure it out and emerge as a cornerstone in pinstripes.
Let’s be clear: the Yankees didn’t just stumble upon Volpe. He was their first-round pick in 2019, taken 30th overall out of Delbarton High School in New Jersey-a local kid with big-league dreams and the tools to match.
He rose quickly through the system, earning praise for his bat, instincts, and defensive prowess. And in 2023, he made good on that promise with a Gold Glove and a top-10 finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting.
But that promising start hasn’t carried over the way many hoped. Volpe’s offensive numbers have stalled, and his glove-once a major asset-took a step back last season.
In 2025, the 24-year-old posted a .212/.272/.391 slash line with 19 home runs and an 83 OPS+. Defensively, he led the American League with 19 errors at shortstop, finishing the year with just 1.6 bWAR.
For a player once projected as the Yankees’ next great two-way shortstop, that’s a tough line to justify.
Still, Boone isn’t ready to count him out. Far from it.
“I think he’s really talented,” Boone said. “Obviously, a first-round pick for us out of high school.
Kind of got through the system fairly quickly for a high school middle infielder. Hit his way up here.
Has hit in the big leagues. He’s had a lot of valleys, too, where the numbers aren’t what we expect them to be-what he expects them to be over the long haul.”
There’s a key phrase in there: “over the long haul.” Boone’s not just looking at the current snapshot-he’s looking at the arc.
He believes Volpe still has the ability to become a true two-way shortstop, the kind of player who can impact the game on both sides of the ball. But he also acknowledges that development doesn’t always follow a straight line.
“This game is filled with talented people, where it’s not always linear,” Boone explained. “It’s said a lot, but it’s very true.
People’s journeys and tracks to becoming a finished product are different a lot of the time. You want your talented guys, or guys talked about-high draft picks that get to the big leagues, and boom-it just takes off and they’re All-Stars and they run with it.
But there are countless examples that that’s not always the case.”
And he’s right. Baseball isn’t a one-size-fits-all development story.
Some players burst onto the scene and never look back. Others take time-more time than fans (and sometimes teams) are willing to give.
Volpe’s first three seasons have shown both promise and frustration. He’s had big moments.
He’s also had long stretches of struggle. But the tools that made him a first-round pick?
They haven’t disappeared.
The Yankees are hoping that 2026 is the year Volpe puts it together. The bat needs to catch up to the glove-or at least return to the form that earned him hardware in 2023.
And the glove? It needs to tighten up again.
If he can do both, the Yankees might just have their shortstop of the future after all.
Boone’s belief in Volpe isn’t blind faith-it’s based on what he’s seen in the minors, in flashes at the major league level, and in the work the young shortstop continues to put in. The question now is whether Volpe can turn that belief into production. Because in New York, patience is a luxury-and the clock is ticking.