PHOENIX — Anthony Volpe has plenty occupying his attention as the Yankees prepare for October. His girlfriend, Elle Jowett, meanwhile, has found a much quieter corner of Arizona.
Jowett resurfaced in the Yankees’ off-field conversation Sunday after sharing pictures from a scenic outing at Cathedral Rock Trail in Sedona while Volpe and New York were in the state for their three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The New York City-based model went hiking at Cathedral Rock and shared images of herself meditating along the trail. Jowett wore a sports top and leggings while posing against Sedona’s distinctive red-rock landscape and desert scenery.
The timing gives an otherwise straightforward lifestyle post a Yankees connection.
While Jowett enjoyed the Arizona scenery, Volpe remained involved in a much different type of September journey roughly 190 kilometers away in Phoenix.
Jowett surfaces during important Yankees stretch
The Yankees have already guaranteed themselves October baseball, clinching their third consecutive postseason appearance. What remains unsettled is their route through the postseason.
Saturday provided another reminder that the remaining games are hardly ceremonial.
Arizona beat New York 5-3 on Pavin Smith’s two-run, walk-off homer in the ninth inning. The loss dropped the Yankees to 89-65 and kept pressure on them during the final stretch of the regular season.
Volpe was directly involved in New York’s offense.
Starting at second base, he went 1-for-4, singled in the fifth inning and later scored the Yankees’ first run on Ben Rice’s sacrifice fly.
That makes the series another useful October measuring stick for a Yankees club already assured of playing beyond the regular season.
Volpe’s Yankees role has changed dramatically
Volpe’s place in the lineup has become one of the more interesting developments surrounding the club.
The Yankees demoted him to Triple-A during the second half after his offensive struggles. During his minor-league stint, Volpe began working at second base, a departure from the shortstop position that defined his first several years in the majors.
New York later brought him back after Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s thumb injury created an opening in the infield.
Volpe announced his return emphatically Sept. 10, delivering a three-hit, five-RBI performance that included a grand slam in the Yankees’ 10-3 victory over Colorado. He admitted afterward that nothing about his return had been guaranteed when New York originally sent him to Triple-A.
Volpe is making his second Yankees chance count
More importantly for the Yankees, Volpe has not allowed that memorable return game to stand alone.
Across his most recent eight games entering Sunday, the 25-year-old was batting .296 with a .345 on-base percentage and .481 slugging percentage, good for an .826 OPS. He collected eight hits in 27 at-bats during that stretch, including two doubles and a home run, while driving in seven runs.
Those numbers represent a meaningful response from a player whose Yankees future appeared much less certain when the club sent him back to Triple-A.
Volpe’s return also came with a positional adjustment. Rather than immediately reclaiming shortstop, he has been receiving work at second base as the Yankees evaluate how their infield might fit together in October.
The experiment has added another layer to his late-season resurgence.
He went hitless in four at-bats during Friday’s 9-2 victory over Arizona, but responded with a single and a run scored Saturday.
The larger trend remains encouraging.
Volpe entered this stretch needing to show that his Triple-A reset produced something tangible. Instead of simply returning because an injury created an opening, he has begun giving the Yankees reasons to keep finding at-bats for him.
That could matter considerably once manager Aaron Boone starts deciding which infield combination gives New York its best postseason lineup.
Elle Jowett has increasingly entered Yankees spotlight
Jowett’s Arizona appearance is not the first time her social media activity has drawn attention during an important moment in Volpe’s season.
She and Volpe became publicly associated during the 2025 season after appearing together at the Carlos Rodón Foundation’s Willow Grant Gala in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Jowett subsequently attended Yankees postseason games, although the pair have generally kept their relationship away from their own social media feeds.
Earlier this year, Jowett again surfaced in headlines after sharing pictures from Los Angeles around the time the Yankees sent Volpe to Triple-A. Other members of the extended Yankees family interacted with that post.
She later attracted attention with another modeling post around Volpe’s return to the major leagues.
Now Arizona provides the latest crossover between the couple’s separate worlds.
Jowett’s weekend has included meditation and the red-rock landscape of Sedona. Volpe’s has featured a postseason-bound Yankees team dealing with a walk-off loss, an evolving infield picture and increasingly important decisions about its October lineup.
The settings could hardly look more different.
But with the calendar rapidly approaching October, both have again placed Volpe’s off-field life alongside one of the most consequential stretches of his Yankees season.
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