Anthony Volpe’s Sophomore Season Expectations

Today, we dive into the primary storyline of 2023, the hopeful next coming of Derek Jeter, number 11 Anthony Volpe! The hometown young buck from Morristown, New Jersey was drafted straight out of high school in 2019. Volpe was a premier minor-league talent for several years, and all of New York was begging the Yankees to call him up to be the Jeter replacement after Gregorious, Torres, Castro, and several others didn't pan out. Fast forward to 2023, and his time came to be the opening-day starter and got an entire season under his belt.

Volpe appeared in 159 games in 2023 and made a great first-year statement with a gold glove at shortstop. His defense was good, but it could have been better. He had a 97% fielding percentage, which is good, but he collected 17 errors. That's a lot of errors, but it was his first year in the majors going against premier hitters such as Diaz, Bichette, and Yoshida, three of the top hitters in the MLB, all of whom are in the AL East.

Offensively, he was not hitting well for his first year in the majors as he hit a .209 batting average, a .283 on-base percentage, and only 113 hits. Those are not good numbers in the MLB, let alone for a shortstop, where traditionally, that position comes with an above-average hitter.

In year two in his MLB career, we should expect a dramatic improvement in his defense and offensive performance. Significantly less errors and a much higher batting average and on-base percentage. My prediction for Volpe's sophomore season is a .265 batting average, a .330 on-base percentage, and only 11 errors. It's hard to join the Yankees with the expectation that you're the next Derek Jeter, but I'd be happy with ANYTHING close to the best shortstop the Yankees have ever seen!