Sometimes you write a headline to get out ahead of the news cycle.  You do that especially when it is a polarizing player, and no Yankee is more polarizing than Anthony Volpe.  Volpe has been the shortstop for the Yankees for four seasons.  He was a first-round draft pick and highly touted prospect, so he has been in the team’s plans for even longer than four years.  For every player, though, there comes an endpoint to their time with the Yankees.  For Volpe, his time in the big leagues is nearing an end, and perhaps his time in pinstripes, too.  So, let’s take a look at him and try to figure out his future.

Volpe has not played well this year

 Volpe was called up almost exactly a month ago when Jose Caballero went on the injured list.  He was expected to only stay up until Caballero came off the injured list, but he played well, so he remained on the team.  His overall slash line in 79 plate appearances, however, is an underwhelming .194/.308/.299, a 71 OPS+.  While he accumulated a respectable OPS of 780 in May, it was 279 in June.  He drew a lot of walks when the season started, but now he has reverted to form with 11 walks to 17 strikeouts.  Perhaps most alarming, he has shown next to no power, and his once golden glove simply isn’t very good.

This is who Volpe is

When you have almost 2,000 career plate appearances, it is fair to take a measure of the player.  Volpe is simply a below-average hitter.  He has shown no improvement over four years, and his career slash line is .221/.284/.376, which is bad even for a shortstop.  He simply doesn’t get on base enough.  And to make matters worse, he strikes out in around 25% of his plate appearances, which is good for a power hitter, but not for a hitter of his level.

He plays one position

 This is probably the biggest knock against him.  He is a shortstop, and that is it.  He either has to start at shortstop (over a guy who has been one of the best fielders this year) or he sits on the bench.  If you want to be a serviceable player, you need to be flexible in the field.  The Yankees need to make him more versatile, and you shouldn’t do that at the big league level if you do it in the minors.

Other players are more valuable

This is the key, and it dovetails with the last point.  The Yankees have Caballero, Max Scheumann, and Amed Rosario on the bench.  All three of them can play most infield and outfield positions.  Heck, even Ryan McMahon can now play shortstop.  You don’t need an active roster with four short stops on it.  Scheumann is the key, because he has significantly outperformed Volpe with a .250/.483/.400 slash line in 20 plate appearances.  He is simply far more valuable to the Yankees than Volpe is right now.

Jasson Dominguez will be ready to rejoin the team, perhaps as early as Friday.  Someone needs to be sent down.  Volpe is the obvious candidate due to his poor performance and his lack of position flexibility.  He can work on playing other positions down there, and in case of injury, they can call him up.   That doesn’t bode well for his future.  At this stage of his career, he is only an injury replacement who simply hasn’t done enough with the bat to show that he is a major league hitter.  Hopefully, he proves me wrong as the season goes on, but alas, we have seen him long enough to be able to say he is who we think he is!