KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jim Hendry was one of the scouts who helped make sure Anthony Volpe became a Yankee out of Delbarton HS.
The longtime executive watched Volpe in high school and was confident the shortstop not only could perform during the regular season, but when it mattered most, as well.
“He just had it,” Hendry, a special assistant to general manager Brian Cashman, said this week at Yankee Stadium. “I knew the moment wouldn’t get too big for him.”
The 23-year-old lifelong Yankee fan is getting his first opportunity in the postseason against the Royals in the ALDS and has shown signs that Hendry’s assessment was correct, as the Yankees split the opening two games heading into Game 3 at Kauffman Stadium.
After a second straight inconsistent regular season, Volpe has had mostly good at-bats at the plate in the first two games of the series against Kansas City — and while he made a costly throwing error in Game 1 that helped lead to a pair of runs, he has otherwise been steady at short.
Asked what he saw from Volpe as a high schooler that made him confident the first-rounder would succeed in October, Hendry said, “He’s a mature kid, with the way he carried himself and the way he played.”
The Yankees saw enough from Volpe to put him at shortstop in The Bronx at the beginning of 2023 and his bat has not produced as much as many had expected.
He sacrificed a bit of power this season in exchange for more contact, but there remained extended stretches of little of either.
So far against Kansas City, Volpe has hit several balls hard, including a 100-mph opposite-field shot to the warning track in right at the Stadium and another well-struck ball to right field in his second at-bat of Game 1.
Volpe followed that with a bases-loaded walk.
He got his first hit of the series in the second inning on Monday, a hard-hit single to left, followed by another walk and then a smash to shortstop.
He’s hit three balls over 100 mph in the two games, and hit two over 105 on Monday.
It’s those kinds of numbers that make Yankees believe that Volpe has more in store at the plate.
And Hendry remains confident Volpe can produce at the highest level.
Even before the Yankees drafted Volpe, Hendry likened him to Alex Bregman, who Hendry saw at LSU before he became an Astro.
Bregman, though, hit the ground running in Houston, hitting well almost immediately as a mid-season call-up in July 2016.
Bregman had an up-and-down postseason in ’17 and emerged as a superstar in 2018.
Whether Volpe ends up on a similar path is unclear.
His lengthy slumps after pitchers adjust to changes he’s made have caused some scouts to wonder if Volpe will meet expectations, although the Yankees point out he’s still a young and inexperienced player.
What he does the rest of this series will make the picture a bit clearer.
