Hey Anthony Volpe, It's Not You... It's Us. Keep Fighting!

Calls for Anthony Volpe to be sent down. The reasons I guess make sense, but you all wanted this… and now you don’t. Make up your mind.

Volpe wow’d a lot of people in the Spring. He earned a spot on the Yankees… he did that! We all remember the video of the poorly delivered announcement to Volpe by Boone. He cried, you cried, we cried.  In the end, Yankee fans wanted the Yankee organization to do the right thing and allow him to make the major league roster. A symbol of change and the youth movement and giving the fans what we want.  

I know the Yankees probably weren’t entirely sure about it, but they probably thought, “Well we have a stellar lineup and we can get this kid up to speed and it’s a good experiment, why not?” Yankee brass might be regretting it right about now, who knows.  Meanwhile, all you guys, a lot of the same people that wanted him up are crying. Now we hear “Volpe’s not ready” and “…send Volpe down” and “He’s not major league caliber”. Really?  

What’s the difference between having a guy like a young, energetic Volpe on the roster batting .186 and Joey Gallo on the roster (currently batting .188 with the Twins by the way)? Riddle me that? Volpe has just 2 less homers, has 14 more stolen bases. They both strike out about the same… and yet it took forever for the Yankees to dump Gallo because was considered “an everyday player“.  But plain and simple, Gallo just isn’t good. Volpe? Volpe has potential.  Let’s not forget, ya’ll wanted Gallo when he came to New York and he was an absolute disaster. Volpe is still trying to get his sea legs and the kid’s 22 with really no MLB experience… but he’s horrible you say?  Everyone needs to stop.  Pump the breaks on this kid. The bottom line is Volpe isn’t the problem. 

Look, the Yankees don’t always make good decisions.  But it doesn’t mean we wash our hands with Volpe. Now yes, it’s true that Oswald Peraza is down on the farm just playing really great baseball right now.  But Peraza should have been on the Yankee roster in the first place… WITH VOLPE.  The fact that the Yankees are using a depth chart with Peraza and Volpe as interchangeable is silly.  But that’s where we’re at. Now Yankee fans have moved onto the next shiny thing… Peraza is good, Volpe is bad. Stop please. 

Brendan Kuty of the Athletic writes this of Peraza and Volpe (through SB Nation):

“What makes Volpe’s situation feel even more pressing is the performance of the player he beat out in in spring training shortstop competition. Oswald Peraza had been lighting Triple-A on fire since his demotion on May 14th, batting .321/.396/.728 with 10 home runs, 17 RBI and a 171 wRC+ in 19 games (though he did have to sit out this past weekend anyway with an illness). His hitting coach credits improved plate discipline for the sustained success:

“He’s currently finding this happy medium of ‘I can make really good swing decisions and not strike out a lot and still hit for power,’” Amicone said. “Whereas I think last year, between (Triple A) and the big leagues, there’s maybe that bouncing back and forth between ‘Who am I capable of being?’ I think now he’s in that spot where he’s beginning to realize that he could do both as long as the kid takes care of (everything) in the cage and with his body and game plans.”