Much has been made about New York Yankee shortstop Anthony Volpe’s struggles on offence to begin his MLB career. Since entering the league in 2023, the former top 10 prospect has been a below average 84 weight runs created plus hitter (wRC+). This metric estimates a player’s total contribution on offence to a lineup and includes factors like a hitter’s ability to get on base and hit for extra bases, the era they play in and ballpark effects, with a 100 wRC+ being league average.
Volpe ranks 221 out of 229 players with at least 650 plate appearances in wRC+ during that time. And while he has been a great baserunner and one of the best defenders in baseball over that period to remain a positive impact player, expectations regarding his offence more than underwhelmed.
From questionable swing decisions to poor quality of contact and inconsistent power surges, Yankee brass and fans haven’t yet consistently seen the hitter that was touted as the next great Yankee shortstop.
However, this past postseason saw the 23-year-old turn into a completely different hitter from the one so far in his career. Overnight, Volpe became an extremely selective hitter, displaying terrific quality of contact, swinging the bat and hitting the ball harder than ever. He posted a 136 wRC+ in 13 games in his first playoffs, leading to optimism about him figuring it out on offence.
After posting an 82 wRC+ his rookie season, Volpe adjusted his swing path, looking to improve contact. And while it led to tremendous results early (125 wRC+ through 58 games), his significant over-performance came down to earth. He became one of the worst hitters in baseball once June 1 struck (62 wRC+ in 102 G), ending the year with an 86 wRC+.
Volpe did improve in areas regarding contact, such as decreasing strikeout percentage from 28 per cent to 23 per cent. However, his hard-hit rate decreased by nearly eight per cent, he hit nine fewer home runs than last year and only three hitters increased their groundball rate more.
Coupled with bad swing decisions, Volpe’s new contact approach made him a weak out, who was sacrificing power.
Come October however, Volpe transformed into a different player:
This chart displays Volpe chase percentage (how often a player swings after a pitch out of the batter’s box) dropping significantly come playoffs.
Volpe’s hard-hit percentage (a batted ball hit in play over 95 mph) skyrocketing in the playoffs.
Volpe’s average bat speed (how fast a player swings the bat on average) seeing a large increase in the playoffs.
To sum it up, Volpe is swinging the bat harder than ever, and that’s evident in his hard-hit rate skyrocketing. Yet, he’s doing so with vastly improved plate discipline, chasing significantly less. This allowed for his walks (BB%) increasing, going from an abysmal 6.1 per cent in the regular season to an elite 16.9 per cent in the playoffs. That mark was only surpassed by his Yankee superstar teammates Juan Soto and Aaron Judge in the regular season.
This hasn’t come at massive expense of his contact skills either, going from 22.5 per cent swing-and-miss in the regular season to 22.2 per cent in the playoffs. He decreased his strikeout rate, dropping from 22.6 per cent to 22 per cent.
The most important factor in all of this is Volpe is swinging the bat with authority. That’s crucial for someone who poises below average bat speed, with pedestrian raw power.
This is evident with the numbers below:
| Metrics | Regular Season | Playoffs |
| Bat Speed | 69.3 mph | 71.6 mph |
| Fast Swing Rate (75 mph or greater) | 3.4 per cent | 18.9 per cent |
Source: baseballsavant.mlb.com
It’s increasingly evident that these adjustments led to his rise in quality of contact (wOBA), his expected quality of contact (xwOBA) and the batted balls Volpe was converting:
| Metrics | Regular Season | Playoffs |
| wOBA | .287 | .359 |
| xwOBA | .280 | .421 |
| Groundball (GB) rate | 50.6 per cent | 30.6 per cent |
| Linedrive (LD) rate | 23.3 per cent | 50 per cent |
Source: baseballsavant.mlb.com
Volpe posted some of the worst quality of contact numbers in baseball, including an xwOBA ranking in the eighth percentile in the league. He also hit the ball into the dirt over half the time he hit the ball into play.
In the playoffs, he produced a great .359 wOBA, while underperforming his expected numbers significantly. This meant the stats he accumulated in the playoffs should’ve been greater. He notably was keeping the ball off the ground and hitting it into the air more, evident by a 20 per cent decrease in GB rate and more than doubling his LD rate.
More than likely over the course of a full season, Volpe isn’t going to sustain the numbers he generated in the playoffs. However, there is hope that he can become an above average hitter with sustainable success, sitting around a 110-115 wRC+; an enormous jump from what he’s been in his career thus far.
These recent playoffs for Volpe not only fueled hope for future growth on offence, but for him to fulfill the mantle of the next great Yankee shortstop, last filled by Yankee legend Derek Jeter.
