The New York Yankees have an Anthony Volpe problem.
It isn’t an urgent one; his pedigree and (typical) defensive prowess earn him playing time, and he’s a safer bet to improve than an in-house replacement, without the cost of a high-profile trade. Even so, his continued struggles at the plate make him a liability in the bottom of the lineup and a point of frustration for the New York faithful.
A-Rod drops his Anthony Volpe take
On The Michael Kay Show, Alex Rodriguez spoke about fixing Volpe’s approach as a means to improving his production. More specifically, he commented on the de-prioritization of batting average across the league.
“It just doesn’t work, Michael. I mean you could look at all you want, I know the analytics guys are rewriting the rules of baseball, but it just doesn’t work,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not winning baseball. You take Volpe for example … you just cannot win a World Series with any player, not to personalize it to Volpe, hitting .215.”
It’s worth noting that the most forward-thinking teams in the league are the ones winning most often (hello, Los Angeles Dodgers), and that having a high batting average is more a product of having quality offensive players, rather than a philosophical choice.
Also, teams regularly make deep playoff runs with a futile bat in the lineup. Josh Smith became a playoff hero after hitting .185; Martín Maldonado started at catcher for the 2022 Houston Astros with a .186 batting average. If Volpe was playing his normal level of defense, this wouldn’t necessarily be a conversation.
ICYMI on The Michael Kay Show:@RealMichaelKay gives his thoughts on the Anthony Volpe criticism. pic.twitter.com/mH1FjSwuzA
— ESPN New York (@ESPNNewYork) June 20, 2025
Rodriguez speculated that Volpe would be better off putting the ball on the ground more and sliding the scale more toward contact than power. Volpe posted an ugly 83 wRC+ with his 21 home runs as a rookie. He clearly doesn’t have enough power to carry his offensive profile. However, that doesn’t mean turning his batted-ball spread upside down would be beneficial.
The league has an .848 OPS on fly balls this season, compared to .514 on ground balls. Line drives (1.581 OPS) are ideal, but notoriously difficult to hit intentionally. This is because line drives are more influenced by exit velocity than their counterparts.
If Volpe could control his line drive rate, he’d be Derek Jeter. Needless to say, that isn’t the case.
“What I would do, look at Derek Jeter’s rookie year,” Rodriguez said. “I would trade Volpe’s home runs and RBIs, and I would trade them today, right now, for a .280 batting average, 10-12 home runs, 65-75 RBIs, and give me 40 stolen bases and play lockdown defense and become the best bunter on the team. That is a formula to win.”
MORE: Yankees-Orioles trade idea sends All-Star slugging utility man to New York
Interestingly enough, Volpe’s approach was similar in 2023 and 2025. But in 2024, he tapped into the more contact-based principles Rodriguez begged for.
In those two power-driven seasons, Volpe posted 40th-percentile contact rates over expected, poor in-zone contact rates, and a Damage/BBE in the 60th and 63rd percentile, respectively (via Robert Orr’s shiny app). Last season, Volpe’s contact skyrocketed (65th-percentile in-zone, 67th-percentile contact rate over expected). His 90th percentile exit velocity was easily the lowest of his career.
Volpe posted an 87 wRC+ in 2024. Through the first half of the 2025 season, his wRC+ remains at 87.
Volpe’s production hasn’t changed, although its shape has. And in 2024, there’s reason to believe he was getting lucky. He outperformed his expected average by 18 points and his expected BABIP by 25. He’s hit the ball on the ground one year and in the air the next, and he hasn’t been productive in either campaign.
“With his great legs, my job would be, I don’t want to hit home runs, I want to hit low line drives, hit ground balls all over the place, force the defense to make errors, become an incredible bunter … I make the argument, if he hit 30 home runs, it could be bad for him because he might hit .160,” Rodriguez added.
Volpe is unlikely to ever hit 30 home runs, but he might hit more if he wasn’t pulling the ball in the air at the lowest rate of his career. Pulled fly balls are the strongest category of batted balls a hitter can chase, partly because of the home runs they create but also because of the extra-base hits waiting for them in the gaps. There, his speed can make an impact without the risk ok the stolen base.
Subsequently, Volpe’s batted balls have been unproductive because of their spray angle, not their launch angle. Yankees fans have watched Volpe chase contact, get lucky, and remain ineffective. There’s little evidence that he can generate the .280 average Rodriguez wants. His tools are limited, which makes optimizing his output all the more important, and that requires lifting the ball to the pull side and letting the chips fall where they may.
There’s a time and place for bunting and situational hitting. But asking Volpe to become a hitter he isn’t, rather than refining his ability to put the ball in the air, is dangerous. The ingredients are there for Volpe to improve offensively. Contrary to the Yankee legend’s plea, it’s probably not going to come on the ground.
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