Anthony Volpe's Yankees debut: What we learned and what's next ...

NEW YORK — Anthony Rizzo flipped the ball back to Anthony Volpe. A second before, Volpe charged the weak grounder and fired a throw from shortstop to get the final out of the fourth inning. It was Volpe’s first defensive play in the majors. Rizzo, a 13-year veteran, thought Volpe would want to stash the ball as a keepsake from his major-league debut. Nope. Volpe whipped it to DJ LeMahieu, and the ball ended up in the hands of Oswaldo Cabrera, who flung it into the crowd.

“I didn’t even think about keeping it,” Volpe told The Athletic. “Maybe I should have.”

Clearly, it didn’t take Volpe long to get over the sap-fest that gave way to Thursday’s 5-0 win over the Giants at Yankee Stadium on Opening Day. Sure, the story was almost too good to be true. Volpe, who grew up in Manhattan and New Jersey, was born into a Yankees-obsessed family, and he dreamed of someday being Derek Jeter. Yeah, just about every single third cousin and grade-school bestie packed into section 214b to cheer him on. The TV and radio broadcasts gushed over his arrival as the team’s top prospect.

And the 21-year-old seemed like he couldn’t have handled it much better, right down to his first Roll Call salute to the Bleacher Creatures, in which he held up his glove and used his other hand to kiss the interlocking NY on his uniform top.

“He’s not anxious,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I thought he was terrific. I thought he was really good.”

“Probably the most fun day of my entire life,” Volpe said.

Anthony Volpe gets a huge ovation before his first ever Yankees game pic.twitter.com/GMgTEFKsz0

— Brendan Kuty (@BrendanKutyNJ) March 30, 2023

Volpe finished 0-for-2. But in his first career plate appearance he drew a leadoff, full-count walk against Giants ace Logan Webb before stealing second base. In his second time up, he grounded out to third base. And in his final trip to the plate, he struck out swinging in the seventh with runners on the corners and one out while trying to extend the Yankees’ lead, which at the time was 3-0.

In the field, he was solid. He started a pretty double play in the sixth inning, backhanding a Wilmer Flores grounder and firing it to LeMahieu at second base, who whipped it over to Rizzo. Immediately after the second out, LeMahieu pointed to Volpe and held the gesture an extra beat, as if to say, “Good job, kid.”

Volpe’s presence clearly brought energy to the Yankees. The buzz in the stadium was almost tangible. Even Aaron Judge, who solo homered in his first at-bat, admitted feeling it.

“Great at-bats,” Judge said. “He was aggressive. He didn’t seem passive at the plate. His first at-bat, I felt like the fans were on their feet, and all of a sudden, he gets that good walk. Then two pitches in, he steals, and the fans are going crazy for that. Just a lot of poise, a lot of patience, and he’s a competitor, man. He made some great plays on defense. Just all around a good day. I know he didn’t get the hits he wanted or what we’ve seen all spring, but those will come.”

Boone said Volpe didn’t seem bothered at all.

“That’s who he is,” Boone said. “It’s another thing to do it Opening Day with the team you grew up watching and now you’re the shortstop. Yeah, you go up there, he’s impressive early, fouls the first pitch off. But the ability to take close pitches is one of the things that’s going to help him be the player that we think he is.”

And that’s Volpe’s next task: becoming the player the Yankees need him to be.

Last season, the Yankees received a combined 1.8 WAR from their shortstops, according to FanGraphs. That ranked them at just No. 24 in the league. With last year’s starter Isiah Kiner-Falefa mostly phased out of the everyday mix, the job will be Volpe’s to lose. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked him the No. 8 overall prospect in the game because of his all-around talent, which was on display in spring training when he beat out Kiner-Falefa and fellow prospect Oswald Peraza for the big-league starting job. Volpe hit .309 with three homers and a 1.033 OPS in 19 games.

The Yankees don’t need Volpe to be a star just yet — though, likely, the sooner the better considering they passed on star shortstops such as Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor and Trea Turner in recent free-agent classes because they were confident in Volpe’s future. For now, they just need Volpe to put all the pageantry from his debut and all the fluff about destiny behind him and to focus on playing. Of course, Judge set his hopes a bit higher than that.

Judge was close with former Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner, who hasn’t played since 2021 but also hasn’t officially retired after a 14-year career in pinstripes. Gardner wore No. 11, and nobody had touched it since he played. But Volpe asked Gardner’s permission to wear it, and Judge stared at the number on Volpe’s back from center field all game. Judge said there was “no better guy” to take over No. 11 after Gardner, adding that Volpe has the “same tenacity and excitement.”

“And I’m hoping he can steal 50 bases like Gardy,” Judge said. “It’s going to be something special.”

(Top photo of Anthony Volpe in the ninth inning on Opening Day: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)