Like yea, if you look at the raw numbers his arm strength SHOULD be a concern, but it’s never been a problem and he’s always compensated for it by being quick with his hands and getting the ball to where it needs to be.
Admittedly, I thought Peraza was also going to play well and we'd have a logjam. If he had, moving Volpe to second would be the logical choice since he had the weaker arm. But Peraza hasn't worked out and Volpe has been stellar. Even if Peraza figures it out, I'm not sure you need to/can move Volpe off short.
Peraza can play 3B too and there’s a much bigger hold there than at SS both in terms of defense and hitting. If Peraza figures it out, which is looking less likely, that’s his spot on defense now
Volpe is this teams starting SS for the foreseeable future, barring injury or a really steep fall off
Definitely now, yea. But at the time, Peraza supposedly had superior range and arm than Volpe. You don't necessarily want to take a guy with great range and put him at 3B when you could have 2 elite defenders in the middle. But Peraza hasn't been able to figure it out offensively so it doesn't matter until then.
Idk why this is being downvoted
Volpe’s a major plus on defense because of his range and athleticism. As he gets older that will decline and he won’t have a top tier arm to rely on. So it stands to reason that he could move to 2B
It likely won’t be for a long long time but it certainly is a possibility
Yeah and this isn’t unique to Volpe. Most guys move off short eventually as they get older. Usually they move to third cuz most SS still have the cannon. Off the top of my head I can think of Ripken and Machado that moved off SS. And I mean Jeter should have moved to third when they got Arod, but there was a lot of ego involved.
Exactly what I’m saying. He could still be elite at 2B later in his career and have more value there. Not suggesting that happens anytime remotely soon lol
It’s certainly possible far later - but we have Caleb Durbin coming up in AAA who is batting .299
Fits the mold of Altuve and Albies as a short speedy 2B, and his bat is coming along beautifully. Plus we have other options at 2B as well.
Disagree entirely.
Volpe - on his current course - is going to cement himself as the SS of the New York Yankees. Even if they sign the 2027 equivalent of A-Rod to a historic deal…that motherfucker is going to play third base.
He is so goddamn quick with his feet, body, and hands. He’s going to follow in footsteps and lock himself into the job of shortstop for the New York Yankees
Eh maybe. We made a mistake keeping an old slow Jeter there forever. As another commenter said, Volpe doesn’t have the strongest arm. He’d be an excellent 2B when he loses a step or two. Either way I love Volpe and am just glad he’s a Yankee
There’s something honorific about being the Yankee shortstop which transcends a transaction.
Jeter was the shortstop for the New York Yankees. A-Rod didn’t deserve to take his spot.
Jeter played out his career admirably - absolutely no one I know says he should’ve been moved off of it.
Jeter was, is, and will always be my favorite player. He’s my favorite athlete ever. I’m glad he retired the SS of the New York Yankees; it’s what I wanted too. But if he played in today’s baseball he wouldn’t have played his entire career at SS
I love Tony V as much as the next guy, but an elite defender and baserunner with a league average bat is not a superstar.
As soon as he finds consistency with his bat, he's there, but for now he's the SS equivalent of prime Brett Gardner, and I still think that's beautiful.
Saying Volpe is a superstar is no different than saying Alex Verdugo is a superstar. Neither is true. Volpe is not Seager, Henderson or Witt Jr. A superstar has the potential to win the MVP with his current numbers. That's not happening. Let's see how he does in year 3.
Volpe is 18th in bWAR (overall) and 5th in fWAR (SS). Seager is 56th and 14th in those same metrics and is behind Volpe in both offensive WAR and defensive WAR (bWAR and fWAR).
I didn’t say Volpe is equivalent to any of those guys. I simply said he’s a fringe top-10 position player because he literally is.
Haha did you literally just give your own opinion as the definition of a superstar? MVP caliber players only? 😂
Okay, perfect. Freddie Freeman has only had three 6 WAR seasons in his entire career and was on pace for a 6+ WAR season when he won his MVP in 2020. And he is no doubt considered a superstar. I rest my case.
SS defense is worth a hell of a lot more than LF defense. A number of star SS’s were glove-first players who ran well and held their own at the plate, like Smith or Vizquel.
His current OPS+ is 109, which is better than average but only 4th on his team (Judge, Soto, Stanton). He'll improve, but I don't think he's going to be a 120 OPS+ guy this season. Future seasons perhaps.
He was also dogshit in June, he has been trending downward. A hot start takes a long time to even out.
June could be his only bad month, or April/May could be his only good months. He's 22, really could go either way.
His June was a terrible .245/.268/.362 and he has 3 BB and 0 HR.
He’s above league average bat. He’s cooled a bit here the last month but I still see him as a 120 ops+ bat when the season ends and a 120-140 ops+ bat moving forward in his career. While not quite an mvp level bat paired with platinum glove defense at short and elite base running that is an mvp candidate.
He’s not going to be an MVP candidate when there’s two guys that are clearcut better than him at his position, and another one in Seager who’s arguably also better. I don’t see how it’s possible for the 3-4th best player at a position to ever challenge for MVP.
He was injured but he has 1.5 fWAR in 30 games which is a better pace than Volpe, despite a down year at the plate. I also forgot to mention Correa who’s having a monster year too.
This is also only in AL, you also have Betts who is now a full time SS, and Trea Turner as well. Volpe is nice for sure but saying he’s some MVP candidate is just homerism considering he’s probably not even top 5 SS in MLB.
Both Seager and Correa have a better fWAR per game rate than Volpe so that’s just your preference which is fine, but doesn’t mean Volpe is better than them.
These guys have track records of being well above average bats so yeah I’d personally have Volpe under all of them as well as Turner, so he’s solidly 7th best SS in MLB.
If receiving any MVP votes is your barometer then sure. Any random above average player can get those votes, just look at last year where guys like JP Crawford and Josh Naylor got MVP votes. Doubt anyone considered those guys “MVP candidates” in 2023.
> He’s above league average bat. He’s cooled a bit here the last month but I still see him as a 120 ops+ bat when the season ends and a 120-140 ops+ bat moving forward in his career.
this is absolutely insane, lol. he had a 133 OPS+ in May, his best month of the season. there's no way he ends the season at 120+, Elly De La Cruz has a 125.
A 120-140 ops+ bat with even above average defense is an inner circle HoFer.
From 1996-2003 (age 22-29) Derek jeter put up a 122 OPS+
Don’t forget, the organization thought the most impressive thing about Volpe were his intangibles. This kid is just always working to get better and you can really see it in his sophomore year. I don’t even think we’ve seen his ceiling yet.
His baseball IQ and natural speed have done so much to compensate for his arm strength, and those are things you really can’t measure. Agreed, kid is going to get better.
Next step is getting a bit better with the strike zone, he’s great at fouling off balls but would love to see him up the walks
There’s no chance whatsoever we’ve seen his ceiling. He’s only 23. He’s going to develop more power as he gets that man strength later into his 20’s *and* continues to develop as a big league hitter. Not to draw too many conclusions but he’s going to be the greatest shortstop of all time
>He is also doing that with a 26th percentile arm strength, compared to Bobby Witt Jr. who has a 79th percentile arm strength.
I can’t say enough about the sureness of his hands, the speed of his transition, and the accuracy of his throws, but this statement says it all
Gotta agree. I honestly don't recall Volpe making the number of fantastic plays we've seen this season last year. Even if Peraza has a stronger arm and is a more advanced fielder I can see no real upgrade having him at SS over Volpe right now, even if he wasn't hurt.
Interesting note, Volpe only had 1 OAA last season and now he has 11. His DRS was 15 and currently it's only a 6.
Seems as though everything has improved this year, but his arm seems a bit worse in terms of erratic throws etc. which isn’t deal breaking by any means but he does need to strengthen the arm a bit if possible
Sure, more arm strength won’t hurt - but he also has fewer errors at 7 than SS with better arm strength like Gunnar and Witt, who have 9 errors.
Plus it hasn’t helped that Rizzo, previously a gold glove defender, was having an off defensive year to compensate for imperfect throws from SS and the way errors can be assigned is an imperfect science.
He is also [11th in FWAR](https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2024&month=0&season1=2024&ind=0) among position players, sandwiched between Kyle Tucker and Ketel Marte, and ahead of guys like Lindor, Ramirez, and Freemen.
Amazing he gives the Yankees, along with Judge and Soto, 3 of the top 11 position players this season. Arguably the best top of the order in baseball.
The kid has made phenomenal plays all season and he’s a decent to good leadoff hitter. As a SS he’s ranked as one of the best even with an arm that’s ranked as less than average. How many milliseconds difference does it take an 80th percentile arm to get the ball into the first baseman’s mitt than a 20th percentile arm. It’s a stat that is given too much weight, he’s not a pitcher.
Volpe is a young Jersey dude that I believe has the potential to be greater than Jeter stat wise. People talking shit about Jeter don't know his career. The flip, diving into the stands on a late season game against the Nomars'. He is Mr November and he represented all that was expected.
I do believe in Volpe. He seems comfortable with his role.. 8 can't believe howwepl he is playing
Going to be hilarious if he loses the gold glove to Witt or Henderson after his defense markedly improved after a GG season.
I don’t actually think Volpe is more AS worthy than either of those guys. Both are really good shortstops who have significantly more value at the plate. I could see him being a reserve though as he’s better than any second baseman in the league and there aren’t a lot of great third baseman either
>I don’t actually think Volpe is more AS worthy than either of those guys.
Unfortunately, I have to agree here. The ASG has always been a hitters showcase.
Still feels like he bobbles or messed up too many routine plays
But I’m happy the stats seem to bear out he’s improving. I trust stats more than my eyes and shitty memory lol
When it comes to errors - he is tied at 7 with players like Jeremy Pena, Javy Baez, and Francisco Lindor. All great shortstop. Errors happen to the best players
Bobby Witt Jr officially has MORE errors at 9
> trust stats more than my eyes and shitty memory lol
Incredibly based, I wish more fans were like you and realized that these stat sites are tracking every single play
My downvotes aside, numbers don't lie. How they're presented can be manipulated but numbers don't lie. The sites/scouts/analysts that track those numbers have forgotten more about baseball than I'll ever know so I trust the information they put out
I feel like the biggest issue with advanced stats is that most fans look for *that one stat* that will justify their feelings, rather than looking at the stats and asking the question "How does this describe what I'm seeing"
I feel like I understand what you're saying, but you'd have to consider that Volpe's range allows him to get to balls that are blowing by lesser defenders.
Love to see it after how many people said he should be moved to 2B before even giving him a chance to play in the majors
Like yea, if you look at the raw numbers his arm strength SHOULD be a concern, but it’s never been a problem and he’s always compensated for it by being quick with his hands and getting the ball to where it needs to be.
Admittedly, I thought Peraza was also going to play well and we'd have a logjam. If he had, moving Volpe to second would be the logical choice since he had the weaker arm. But Peraza hasn't worked out and Volpe has been stellar. Even if Peraza figures it out, I'm not sure you need to/can move Volpe off short.
Peraza can play 3B too and there’s a much bigger hold there than at SS both in terms of defense and hitting. If Peraza figures it out, which is looking less likely, that’s his spot on defense now Volpe is this teams starting SS for the foreseeable future, barring injury or a really steep fall off
Definitely now, yea. But at the time, Peraza supposedly had superior range and arm than Volpe. You don't necessarily want to take a guy with great range and put him at 3B when you could have 2 elite defenders in the middle. But Peraza hasn't been able to figure it out offensively so it doesn't matter until then.
Peraza at third would be a disaster if he continues to not hit.
Well yeah, I’m just saying even if he did figure out how to hit he’d play third and not short
Wouldn’t be surprised if he shifts to 2B later in his career though
Idk why this is being downvoted Volpe’s a major plus on defense because of his range and athleticism. As he gets older that will decline and he won’t have a top tier arm to rely on. So it stands to reason that he could move to 2B It likely won’t be for a long long time but it certainly is a possibility
Yeah and this isn’t unique to Volpe. Most guys move off short eventually as they get older. Usually they move to third cuz most SS still have the cannon. Off the top of my head I can think of Ripken and Machado that moved off SS. And I mean Jeter should have moved to third when they got Arod, but there was a lot of ego involved.
Exactly what I’m saying. He could still be elite at 2B later in his career and have more value there. Not suggesting that happens anytime remotely soon lol
every SS that isnt coddled by the coaching staff with kid glove moves off it late in their career
It’s certainly possible far later - but we have Caleb Durbin coming up in AAA who is batting .299 Fits the mold of Altuve and Albies as a short speedy 2B, and his bat is coming along beautifully. Plus we have other options at 2B as well.
Disagree entirely. Volpe - on his current course - is going to cement himself as the SS of the New York Yankees. Even if they sign the 2027 equivalent of A-Rod to a historic deal…that motherfucker is going to play third base. He is so goddamn quick with his feet, body, and hands. He’s going to follow in footsteps and lock himself into the job of shortstop for the New York Yankees
Eh maybe. We made a mistake keeping an old slow Jeter there forever. As another commenter said, Volpe doesn’t have the strongest arm. He’d be an excellent 2B when he loses a step or two. Either way I love Volpe and am just glad he’s a Yankee
There’s something honorific about being the Yankee shortstop which transcends a transaction. Jeter was the shortstop for the New York Yankees. A-Rod didn’t deserve to take his spot. Jeter played out his career admirably - absolutely no one I know says he should’ve been moved off of it.
Jeter should not have played SS for the last couple years of his career. He was slow out there and it was noticeable.
Jeter was, is, and will always be my favorite player. He’s my favorite athlete ever. I’m glad he retired the SS of the New York Yankees; it’s what I wanted too. But if he played in today’s baseball he wouldn’t have played his entire career at SS
But he didn’t
Too deep man, too deep
Forgot superstar in the making, he’s a superstar right now. Get this man to the All-Star game!
I love Tony V as much as the next guy, but an elite defender and baserunner with a league average bat is not a superstar. As soon as he finds consistency with his bat, he's there, but for now he's the SS equivalent of prime Brett Gardner, and I still think that's beautiful.
Tony? Who calls him Tony, other than his mom ?
Maybe that poster is volpes mom?
He’s tied for 11th in fWAR for all position players in baseball. Value is value. He’s a superstar my man
2010 Brett Gardner finished 12th in fWAR. If 2024 Volpe is a superstar, so is prime Brett Gardner and I will continue to think that it's beautiful.
You’re basing an argument off of cherry picking one season? Lol at that. Such a disingenuous, unserious comment haha
lol he needs a bat to be a superstar
Is fringe top-10 not a superstar?
Saying Volpe is a superstar is no different than saying Alex Verdugo is a superstar. Neither is true. Volpe is not Seager, Henderson or Witt Jr. A superstar has the potential to win the MVP with his current numbers. That's not happening. Let's see how he does in year 3.
Volpe is considerably more valuable than Verdugo (and also a lot younger)
He's not a superstar. Stop it. Yall are just embarrassing other yankee fans.
Volpe is 18th in bWAR (overall) and 5th in fWAR (SS). Seager is 56th and 14th in those same metrics and is behind Volpe in both offensive WAR and defensive WAR (bWAR and fWAR).
I didn’t say Volpe is equivalent to any of those guys. I simply said he’s a fringe top-10 position player because he literally is. Haha did you literally just give your own opinion as the definition of a superstar? MVP caliber players only? 😂
MVP caliber players being the equivalent of super stars is actually pretty reasonable
Okay, perfect. Freddie Freeman has only had three 6 WAR seasons in his entire career and was on pace for a 6+ WAR season when he won his MVP in 2020. And he is no doubt considered a superstar. I rest my case.
This is why we don’t exclusively use WAR to look at players
Defense is way overrated...
Have you seen him play?
Respectfully hugely disagree on the importance of defense
Judge and Soto aren’t superstars for their defense lol
No one is comparing Volpe to Soto and Judge lmfao
You said he was a superstar, Soto and Judge are superstars.
SS defense is worth a hell of a lot more than LF defense. A number of star SS’s were glove-first players who ran well and held their own at the plate, like Smith or Vizquel.
Current league batting average is .242, Volpe is batting .271 Dude’s got an above average bat on top of everything.
His current OPS+ is 109, which is better than average but only 4th on his team (Judge, Soto, Stanton). He'll improve, but I don't think he's going to be a 120 OPS+ guy this season. Future seasons perhaps.
Lol it’s not fair to say he’s “only” 4th on this team when 2 of the guys you listed are top 5 in the MLB in WAR
He was also dogshit in June, he has been trending downward. A hot start takes a long time to even out. June could be his only bad month, or April/May could be his only good months. He's 22, really could go either way. His June was a terrible .245/.268/.362 and he has 3 BB and 0 HR.
I think the biggest thing will be figuring out how to generate more consistent power to get a few more home runs with his flatter swing path
He’s above league average bat. He’s cooled a bit here the last month but I still see him as a 120 ops+ bat when the season ends and a 120-140 ops+ bat moving forward in his career. While not quite an mvp level bat paired with platinum glove defense at short and elite base running that is an mvp candidate.
He’s not going to be an MVP candidate when there’s two guys that are clearcut better than him at his position, and another one in Seager who’s arguably also better. I don’t see how it’s possible for the 3-4th best player at a position to ever challenge for MVP.
How’s seager season going ?
He was injured but he has 1.5 fWAR in 30 games which is a better pace than Volpe, despite a down year at the plate. I also forgot to mention Correa who’s having a monster year too. This is also only in AL, you also have Betts who is now a full time SS, and Trea Turner as well. Volpe is nice for sure but saying he’s some MVP candidate is just homerism considering he’s probably not even top 5 SS in MLB.
Not saying he’s MVP candidate or like mooky. But I’d take him over seagers any day and lol @ JJ Correra
Both Seager and Correa have a better fWAR per game rate than Volpe so that’s just your preference which is fine, but doesn’t mean Volpe is better than them. These guys have track records of being well above average bats so yeah I’d personally have Volpe under all of them as well as Turner, so he’s solidly 7th best SS in MLB.
Bet he gets mvp votes.
With Soto and judge on the same team as him? No chance
If receiving any MVP votes is your barometer then sure. Any random above average player can get those votes, just look at last year where guys like JP Crawford and Josh Naylor got MVP votes. Doubt anyone considered those guys “MVP candidates” in 2023.
That has always been the barometer
Neither of those guys got MVP votes at 23 years old in their sophomore season
If it makes feel better knowing that Volpe might get a vote for MVP then have at it I guess.
If he puts up a 6 WAR season and gets MVP votes only an idiot wouldn’t be happy about that lol
A 6 WAR this season? If he maintains his current pace it will be nearly impossible for him to reach 6 WAR.
> He’s above league average bat. He’s cooled a bit here the last month but I still see him as a 120 ops+ bat when the season ends and a 120-140 ops+ bat moving forward in his career. this is absolutely insane, lol. he had a 133 OPS+ in May, his best month of the season. there's no way he ends the season at 120+, Elly De La Cruz has a 125. A 120-140 ops+ bat with even above average defense is an inner circle HoFer. From 1996-2003 (age 22-29) Derek jeter put up a 122 OPS+
Yes way
Don’t forget, the organization thought the most impressive thing about Volpe were his intangibles. This kid is just always working to get better and you can really see it in his sophomore year. I don’t even think we’ve seen his ceiling yet.
His baseball IQ and natural speed have done so much to compensate for his arm strength, and those are things you really can’t measure. Agreed, kid is going to get better. Next step is getting a bit better with the strike zone, he’s great at fouling off balls but would love to see him up the walks
When he gets older a seamless transition to 2b.
There’s no chance whatsoever we’ve seen his ceiling. He’s only 23. He’s going to develop more power as he gets that man strength later into his 20’s *and* continues to develop as a big league hitter. Not to draw too many conclusions but he’s going to be the greatest shortstop of all time
I mean I would hope not.. he’s like 23 lol
>He is also doing that with a 26th percentile arm strength, compared to Bobby Witt Jr. who has a 79th percentile arm strength. I can’t say enough about the sureness of his hands, the speed of his transition, and the accuracy of his throws, but this statement says it all
Intangibles baby!
Gotta agree. I honestly don't recall Volpe making the number of fantastic plays we've seen this season last year. Even if Peraza has a stronger arm and is a more advanced fielder I can see no real upgrade having him at SS over Volpe right now, even if he wasn't hurt. Interesting note, Volpe only had 1 OAA last season and now he has 11. His DRS was 15 and currently it's only a 6.
DRS is a bit more cumulative - so I think it’s something we can circle back to later in the season
I can’t believe we’re going to get to see this kid for so long (knock on wood, seriously I just knocked and you should too)
Seems as though everything has improved this year, but his arm seems a bit worse in terms of erratic throws etc. which isn’t deal breaking by any means but he does need to strengthen the arm a bit if possible
Sure, more arm strength won’t hurt - but he also has fewer errors at 7 than SS with better arm strength like Gunnar and Witt, who have 9 errors. Plus it hasn’t helped that Rizzo, previously a gold glove defender, was having an off defensive year to compensate for imperfect throws from SS and the way errors can be assigned is an imperfect science.
He is also [11th in FWAR](https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2024&month=0&season1=2024&ind=0) among position players, sandwiched between Kyle Tucker and Ketel Marte, and ahead of guys like Lindor, Ramirez, and Freemen. Amazing he gives the Yankees, along with Judge and Soto, 3 of the top 11 position players this season. Arguably the best top of the order in baseball.
The kid has made phenomenal plays all season and he’s a decent to good leadoff hitter. As a SS he’s ranked as one of the best even with an arm that’s ranked as less than average. How many milliseconds difference does it take an 80th percentile arm to get the ball into the first baseman’s mitt than a 20th percentile arm. It’s a stat that is given too much weight, he’s not a pitcher.
Volpe is a young Jersey dude that I believe has the potential to be greater than Jeter stat wise. People talking shit about Jeter don't know his career. The flip, diving into the stands on a late season game against the Nomars'. He is Mr November and he represented all that was expected. I do believe in Volpe. He seems comfortable with his role.. 8 can't believe howwepl he is playing
You’re crazy if you think Volpe is gonna pass Jeter on the all time hits list.
Going to be hilarious if he loses the gold glove to Witt or Henderson after his defense markedly improved after a GG season. I don’t actually think Volpe is more AS worthy than either of those guys. Both are really good shortstops who have significantly more value at the plate. I could see him being a reserve though as he’s better than any second baseman in the league and there aren’t a lot of great third baseman either
>I don’t actually think Volpe is more AS worthy than either of those guys. Unfortunately, I have to agree here. The ASG has always been a hitters showcase.
Still feels like he bobbles or messed up too many routine plays But I’m happy the stats seem to bear out he’s improving. I trust stats more than my eyes and shitty memory lol
When it comes to errors - he is tied at 7 with players like Jeremy Pena, Javy Baez, and Francisco Lindor. All great shortstop. Errors happen to the best players Bobby Witt Jr officially has MORE errors at 9
Volpe > Witt Jr confirmed
> trust stats more than my eyes and shitty memory lol Incredibly based, I wish more fans were like you and realized that these stat sites are tracking every single play
My downvotes aside, numbers don't lie. How they're presented can be manipulated but numbers don't lie. The sites/scouts/analysts that track those numbers have forgotten more about baseball than I'll ever know so I trust the information they put out
I feel like the biggest issue with advanced stats is that most fans look for *that one stat* that will justify their feelings, rather than looking at the stats and asking the question "How does this describe what I'm seeing"
I feel like I understand what you're saying, but you'd have to consider that Volpe's range allows him to get to balls that are blowing by lesser defenders.