You Will Never Find Anyone Who Stands Up For A Person Like Aaron Boone Does For Anthony Volpe
New York Yankees. Getty Images.Year three for Anthony Volpe was supposed to bring on a major leap in his game. Coming off a strong October while under immense pressure there were signs out there that his breakout season was at our finger tips. Instead of seeing any of that, Volpe's game has regressed in every facet.
While the Yankees shortstop's bat has not been what we hoped on a consistent basis, his glove and base running had constantly come through to show his value. Even when his offensive game wasn't there you could always lean on the other two parts. In 2025, however, it's all fallen apart and the results have been alarming.
Through 99 games Volpe is slashing a dismal .214/.286/.394. His OPS+ is 88, which means he's 12% worse than the league average hitter. Scary enough, that number is actually his career best through three seasons. He's only stolen 10 bags in 2025 while getting caught seven times. That number seven matches his highest total in either of his previous two years when he stole 24 and 28 bases respectively. So the hitting and the stolen bases are non-factors. Well, what about his defense? Somehow that might be the worst part.
As we stand right now, Volpe leads the American League in errors with 12. When you watch every game you realize that the number 12 could easily be much closer to 20 if not for Paul Goldschmidt's good defense at first. I'm aware this was a month ago, but it just gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. At the time Goldy led the league in throws bounced to him.
And while Goldy didn't make the top 5 in scoops made%, he'd been perfectly solid going 36 for 43 and an 83.7%. Now who do you think was the main culprit in those bounces?
Shocker. Keep in mind Jazz was playing a position alien to him at 3rd. Now that he's at 2nd you're not seeing those bouncing throws. But Volpe is a shortstop by trade. He won a gold glove during his rookie year. You want to tell me that gold gloves are silly now and handed out with no rhyme or reason fine, but Volpe was a plus defender at the position for two years. Easily one of the best in the game. For whatever reason, whether it be his offensive issues impacting his defense or whatever, that's all gone away. Last night another errant throw happened and resulted in a crucial 4th run scoring against the Jays.
Advertisement
Will Goldy tell you he should have had that? Definitely, but as I mentioned before, he's bailed out Volpe plenty of times this year. How about you just make a routine throw to the chest of the first baseman? That's not a difficult play for any shortstop, but Volpe in 2025 can't make the simple plays. His defense is helping kill the team.
Thankfully for Volpe 1) the Yankees don't have a replacement on the roster for shortstop right now 2) Boone will defend him until the last day of the Earth.
If someone ever asks you what the term "gaslighting" means just refer them to the above clip. Calling him a "top shortstop" this year is asinine. He's barely a shortstop as it is right now. Boone acts like we're at home and strictly looking at his league-high 12 errors to make our judgement. If you're like me and watch every Yankees game like the idiot that I am, you see that this is an issue all the fucking time. Sure he doesn't have a rocket launcher for an arm, but we knew that. His instincts, range, and footwork though used to be his bread and butter. Now they're dogshit.
The Yankees will tell you they have their own defensive metrics that show he's a better fielder than we see with our own eyes. It's our fault though. We're seeing it wrong. They're just insulting our intelligence as fans right to our faces. You can have your guy's back while also holding him accountable. Instead Boone just ignores reality because he either believes it or is as asshole.
Aaron Boone was brought in to be that guy who serves the team warm milk and cookies during the tough moments to counter the Joe Girardi method of getting on players when they struggled (Gary Sanchez). The players love it because they are never once publicly held accountable. The front office doesn't care because they're the ones telling him to do this. The fans are the only ones who take the hit as we're forced to listen to constant bullshit like that clip above all the fucking time.
Advertisement
Volpe was anointed as the gold child of this organization as he rose through the ranks. The organization chose him as the future and passed on Corey Seager —they didn't even meet with the guy— because he was the much cheaper option. As a result of that, you get this unbreakable trust and belief.
Now that Volpe has yet to "crush it for us offensively" for two years after that clip I wonder if we're nearing an inflection point. If this continues for the next two months and into October, how do you move forward with the guy as your starting shortstop with no discussion on another option? Listen, I hope to god it all clicks for him and he becomes the prospect we hoped, but man it's getting very hard to defend the guy when everything is getting worse. While the Boone comments bother me, but irks me more is that Volpe isn't getting better, he's actually getting worse. We need this guy to be better, period. Boone won't say that, but I will. It's unacceptable for Volpe to be this player in year three. Starting tonight he's gotta begin to turn it around.
P.S. Volpe has always been a very up and down offensive player so there's no telling if this is the reason for his plummet with the bat, but it is interesting to look at. It would be very Yankees to have Volpe playing through a labrum tear only to address it in the offseason.