Anthony Volpe living out every Yankees fan's childhood dream

Fri, Jul 15, 2022
MLB News (AP)

Millions of kids in the New York area grew up idolizing Derek Jeter, dreaming of one day pulling on the pinstripes and suiting up for the Yankees.'

For most, that was only a dream. By age 21, 99.99% of those kids are in the bleachers in the Bronx, wearing a jersey with shorts instead of baseball pants, holding a beer and not a bat. But from Trenton, New Jersey, to Danbury, Connecticut, and all the way out on Long Island, everyone wanted to be Jeter.

Of those millions and millions of kids, only one has a chance to truly walk in his shoes.

Anthony Volpe - the New York Yankees' top prospect, a lifelong fan and a New Jersey resident - is not just living his dream. He's also living everyone else's.

"I don't take it lightly, and it keeps everything in perspective for me," Volpe told AP Sports during an exclusive interview in May. "I was that tri-state area 10-year-old kid who dreamed about doing exactly what I'm doing now."

Born and raised in Watchung, New Jersey, about an hour southwest of Yankee Stadium, Volpe established himself as a precocious baseball talent from an early age. He starred on the 12U USA National Team and obliterated his local little league. One staff member of the Double-A Somerset Patriots - the Yankees' affiliate in New Jersey, with which the 21-year-old shortstop is currently playing 20 minutes from his childhood home - remembers Volpe's legendary exploits as a kid.

When he was about 12 or 13, Volpe didn't show up for the local rec basketball league, in which he'd been one of the best players. One parent asked another why Volpe hadn't signed up for basketball that year. The other parent had heard he quit in order to focus on playing baseball in the winter.

"What does he think he's going to do?" the first parent replied, incredulous. "Play for the Yankees?"

Fast-forward less than 10 years, and that's exactly what Volpe plans to do.

Drafted 24th overall in 2019, the kid who wanted to focus on baseball has rocketed to the top of New York's farm system faster than anyone thought possible. When he was selected out of Delbarton High School, where he was teammates with 2021 second overall pick Jack Leiter, the 5-foot-11 shortstop was considered a high-floor, low-ceiling player by much of the industry.'

Volpe had dominated the New Jersey high school baseball scene, cementing himself as something of a local legend, but the scouting hive mind believed that his power potential was limited and there was a decent chance he'd have to move off shortstop.

While reviewing the Yankees' 2019 draft, one outlet gave Volpe's selection a "D" grade, writing: "While Volpe has good 'makeup,' he doesn't light up the basepaths or hit for a lot of power. He's not even all that promising of a shortstop. An under-sign, potentially."'

But in just three short seasons, one of which was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic, Volpe has crumpled up that critique like a piece of scrap paper and slam-dunked it into the garbage.

After an abbreviated, underwhelming stint in rookie ball in 2019, Volpe didn't play baseball in 2020. He wasn't brought to the alternate site and instead trained at his parents' home. When the dust settled and the 2021 season began, he emerged as a completely different hitter. His swing looked more powerful, more athletic, and he was driving the ball with much more authority while maintaining the impressive contact skills that made him a top pick in the first place.

Between Low-A and High-A, he smashed 27 home runs, stole 32 bases and hit .294, all while being young for the level. That season pushed Volpe from an unranked afterthought into the top 15 of most prospect lists. And as a local kid who'd been a lifelong Yankees fan, it made him the perfect character for the Yankee hype machine. His PSA-10 baseball cards (the highest standard) started selling for thousands of dollars. Yanks fans on Twitter started christening him "Jeter, from Jersey."

The attention and hype around Volpe only grew after the Yankees assigned him to Double-A Somerset to start the 2022 season. He'd get to play in his own backyard in front of childhood friends and admirers while living at home with his parents. There quite possibly is no more pressure-filled environment in which to play minor-league baseball: the Yankees' top prospect, a shortstop, playing Double-A ball in his hometown, an hour away from the Bronx.

And for the first two months of the season, Volpe struggled mightily. When we sat down to chat in the Patriots' home dugout on May 19, he was hitting .183/.315/.348 with only four homers. It was, for a kid who had dominated the competition his entire young life, the first time Volpe had experienced a sustained period of failure on a diamond. And it was all happening at home, in front of his friends and family.

"You have to remind yourself that failure doesn't define you," Volpe said. "I don't think you appreciate the success if you don't go through the failure."'

While he refused to admit that the stress of playing at home was a contributing factor in his'early season scuffles - Double-A baseball is hard, especially if you're 21 - it's clear that all the attention and eyeballs got a bit exhausting at times.

"Everyone wants a piece of him, every single night," one of his teammates said. "That has to get tiring."

Somerset team officials noted that ticket sales were notably up ("The Volpe Effect") and media requests for the young star were through the roof. Media relations staff admitted they'd had to limit access to Volpe due to the avalanche of requests they received. In fact, when I walked down to the dugout to interview Volpe, one of his teammates hollered out in jest: "You hear to talk with the golden child?"

Level-headed, grounded and emotionally intelligent beyond his years, Volpe is built perfectly to handle the limelight that comes with being a Yankees prospect and, someday soon, a Yankee. In interviews, he is thoughtful yet measured, engaging yet understandably careful not to reveal too much of himself. It's an approach to Yankee-dom taken by Aaron Judge on a daily basis - and Jeter before him. '

That mindset leads to the occasional boring quote - "I love just being out here every day and playing baseball with a great group of guys" - but it also enables an even-keeled-ness that makes carrying the weight much easier. Instead of being burdened and overtaken by the frustrations of his extended early season slump, Volpe remained steadfast in his approach and in his process.

"I feel like if I do what I have to do and work really hard every day and go about my daily routine and don't change, things will be all right," he said. "I think that's the main thing: not changing and not searching and just sticking to all the work that I've done that's gotten me here."

It turns out Volpe was right. Since the day he said that, he's hitting .297/.376/.533 with a .909 OPS, 18 steals and eight home runs. Any Yankees fans worried about his bad first two months are breathing easy again. Most of Volpe's collectable baseball cards, which dipped in price during his slump, are again going for thousands of dollars on eBay. The hype is very much back.

Don't expect Volpe to debut in the Bronx this season; that seems more likely to happen in 2023. But on Saturday, he'll take the field at Dodger Stadium on perhaps the minor leagues' biggest stage, the MLB Futures Game, as one of the sport's top prospects.'

After a small road bump, the golden boy from down the road, with Yankees posters plastered all over his childhood bedroom, is back on the precipice of achieving his dream.

Of achieving everyone's dream.

Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for AP Sports. He's an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he's not watching baseball, he's almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.