KANSAS CITY — He had been buried once already this season. The Yankees demoted Anthony Volpe to Triple-A weeks ago. They handed his shortstop job to someone else. The Yankees sat him for two straight games.
Then the Yankees handed him the ninth inning, and he answered.
This is the story of a player who refused to disappear. It is a story Yankees fans have waited weeks to celebrate. The Yankees needed it, too for the 4-2 win.
Volpe waits his turn before the spotlight finds him
Anthony Volpe entered Monday in a strange spot for the Yankees. He had not started the previous two games. Jose Caballero held the Yankees’ shortstop job. The 24-year-old Yankees infielder was, by every measure, a part-time player.
His afternoon began without much promise. Through eight innings, Volpe sat 0-for-2 with a walk and two strikeouts. The box score offered little hint of what was coming.
The Yankees needed something. They had carried a 2-0 lead into the late innings. Then Bobby Witt Jr. crushed a go-ahead homer in the eighth. Kansas City led 3-2. The Yankees’ long streak against the Royals suddenly looked fragile.
The ninth opened quietly. Cody Bellinger grounded out on the first pitch against closer Lucas Erceg. Fourteen straight Yankees had now been retired. The afternoon felt lost for the Yankees.
Paul Goldschmidt changed that. He got jammed badly, yet chopped a broken-bat roller toward shortstop. The ball deadened on the grass. Witt had no play. Goldschmidt beat it out for an infield single.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with a hustle double past first base. He tweaked his right ankle but stayed in the game. Pinch-runner Max Schuemann moved to third. Two runners stood in scoring position.
Up stepped the Yankees shortstop, Volpe.
The swing that flipped a quiet day
Here, in the middle of a quiet day, came the swing that defined it. Volpe fell behind 1-2 against the Royals closer. Erceg fired a slider, but it caught too much of the plate. Volpe stayed calm and laid off a low, outside pitch earlier in the count. Then he drove a knee-high slider into left field. Two runs scored. The Yankees suddenly led 4-3.
Aaron Judge watched it all from the dugout rail. He raised his right arm and twirled a white towel. His belief in Volpe never wavered.
“In that situation, I knew Volpe was gonna get the job done,” Judge said. “He was down two strikes and you’re going against their closer, but when he’s right and feeling healthy, man, he puts the ball in play and makes things happen.”
David Bednar closed it out in the bottom of the ninth for the Yankees. They had survived, 4-3, on a Memorial Day matinee at Kauffman Stadium. Volpe was the reason.
His manager reached for one word to describe him.
“He’s a dawg,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s a gamer. He’s a tough kid. Certainly [losing his job] isn’t the way he would draw it up or maybe even doesn’t feel that’s fair. Whatever it may be, but the one thing he does is continue to work his tail off and play his tail off.”
From surgery to demotion to redemption
The road to this moment was long. Volpe underwent shoulder surgery last October. He opened the year as the starter, then struggled. When Caballero played well in his absence, the Yankees stuck with the veteran shortstop. A rehab assignment ended with a demotion to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Eight days in the minors tested him. Yet he never let the frustration show. Yankees teammates reached out. Chisholm was one of them.
The two stayed in contact while Volpe worked through the demotion. Chisholm wanted his friend to know it was temporary.
“We were texting while he was going through it,” Chisholm, who score the run on Volpe’s hit said. “All I told him was he was built for this. ‘This isn’t nothing but a short little stop in your road. This is why you were here before, and this is why you got to come back and do what you got to do.'”
The composure in that 1-2 count did not surprise the Yankees manager. He had watched Volpe grind through every at-bat. The patience paid off.
“No panic there with two strikes,” Boone said. “He doesn’t chase a pitch to net him another opportunity and gets one elevated enough.”
Volpe has quietly built a strong case since returning. He owns a .231 average across nine games. The number undersells him. He has reached base 14 times, with six hits and eight walks in 34 plate appearances. His on-base percentage sits at .412.
Teammates rally around their guy
When the runs crossed in the ninth, Chisholm found Volpe on the field. He wrapped him in a bear hug. The emotion was real.
“In that moment where we needed it the most, (Volpe) came in and helped us win that game right there,” Chisholm said. “I was super excited for my guy.”
Volpe, as usual, deflected the praise. He pointed to the group instead of himself. The win mattered more than the moment.
“It just felt great to contribute and help the team win,” Volpe said. “You do it for this, for the guys. I’m just trying to go out there and compete. Help the team win and have fun. It’s the same game I’ve been playing forever.”
His teammates refused to let him stay humble for long. Will Warren, who tossed six scoreless innings, saw a bigger meaning in the hit. He knew how heavy the past few weeks had felt for his shortstop. The single, he believed, lifted more than the scoreboard.
“That obviously is a big spark for us, but I think it’s a big spark for (Volpe), too,” Warren said. “It’s been tough on him, and here he is coming up in a big spot and getting us the win.”
Gerrit Cole, who starts Wednesday, added his voice. He admired the grind behind the comeback.
“He’s come up and done his job really well,” Cole said. “Certainly we’re all pulling for him, knowing the hard work he put in, coming back from his surgery. It’s a really good day for Anthony. I’m thrilled.”
For one afternoon, the part-time player became the Yankees‘ headline. Volpe dragged them off the mat. The dawg, as Boone called him, bit back.
Can Volpe save his place and Yankees career? What do you think?
