Aaron Boone and the Yankees' Growing Anthony Volpe Problem

It used to be that the New York Yankees didn't have to worry about getting production out of the shortstop position.

From 1996 through 2019, their shortstops racked up more wins above replacement than any other team's. Most of that was Derek Jeter's doing for Joe Torre and Joe Girardi, sure, but let's not forget that Didi Gregorius subsequently performed well for Girardi and Aaron Boone.

And yet, here we are halfway through the decade, and only four teams have gotten less WAR from shortstop than the Yankees during the 2020s.

Even if he's Public Enemy No. 1 in the Bronx right now, this failure isn't all on Anthony Volpe. But when the Yankees gave him the job in 2023, they probably didn't expect to be dealing with an uproar over his standing just two years later.

If you've seen the headlines coming out of New York, everyone is angry about everything.

The Slow Demise of Anthony Volpe

It was never fair to expect Volpe to be the next Jeter. But it was also hard not to at least daydream about it back in the spring of 2023, precisely because the "Volpe is the next Jeter!" calls were largely coming from inside the house.

The Yankees passed up quite a few opportunities to get to the point where they anointed Volpe as their franchise shortstop. They notably passed on the historic free-agent shortstop class of the 2021-22 offseason, including a perfect fit in Corey Seager.

Three years in, though, here's the short version of Volpe's career:

• 2023: 81 OPS+, 3.3 rWAR
• 2024: 86 OPS+, 3.4 rWAR
• 2025: 83 OPS+, 1.4 rWAR

When the 24-year-old hit 21 home runs as a rookie, his swing from the right side was tailored to get the ball in the air to left field.

He subsequently flattened his swing and made an effort to use more of the whole field in 2024, but all he got was a 10-point OBP increase and a 29-point slugging decrease.

The best thing Volpe has done in 2025 is cut down on his chase rate, which is solidly in the 73rd percentile. Yet it has been for naught, as his strikeout rate is up and he's wasted too many fly balls to center field and right field.

Meanwhile, his defense has gone from a Gold Glove-winning asset to an utterly baffling liability. He leads the American League with 18 errors, which isn't even counting the mental lapse he had last Friday against the Boston Red Sox:

When it comes down to it, Volpe is in a special class of just six players who have played 130-plus games at shortstop in 2025. Yet he's unequivocally last in the class, ranking 0.8 WAR behind Willy Adames.

Aaron Boone Is Characteristically Clueless

That Red Sox series was clearly the point when Yankees fans had finally had enough with Volpe.

He heard jeers after the aforementioned brain poot, and then again when he flubbed a makeable play in a disastrous ninth inning one day later:

There are times when it's fair to criticize Yankees fans for being too hard on their own. They booed Aaron Judge just last April. Perhaps that helped motivate him to go on and win another MVP award, but a simpler explanation is that he's literally Aaron Judge, and the boos were ill-deserved in the first place.

The situation with Volpe is different. Yankees fans have every right to boo him, as his poor play is invariably tied to the million-dollar question: "Why are we being made to watch this?"

The answer up until Sunday was that it was because the Yankees insisted on standing by Volpe. Heck, Boone even defended that throw to second against Boston, saying it was "obviously not the right play" but also that it was "a little bit of a heady play, too."

That Boone went from bending that far over backwards for Volpe to benching him two days later is good for laughs, if nothing else. Even then, the manager was still lauding him as "mentally tough and totally wired to handle all of the things that go with being a big leaguer in this city."

That remark flew in the face of not just statistical evidence, but the eye test as well. Those two plays against the Red Sox said it all, as only a guy desperate to dig himself out of a self-made hole is liable to try that hard only to screw up that royally.

Then again, falling back on the "This is fine" routine is Boone's whole shtick. He goes to bat for everyone all the time, regardless of whether it's deserved. Tough love is simply not in his vocabulary as a manager, and the Volpe situation is the ultimate sign he's not going to change even after eight years on the job.

And the two-game benching? It didn't exactly work as intended. Volpe went 0-for-9 in his next two starts, putting him at 1-for-37 for his last 11 games before collecting two hits vs. the Chicago White Sox on Thursday.

This Should Be One Red Flag Too Many for the Yankees

The Yankees have found some momentum with wins in five in a row and 14 out of 20, but what's happening with Volpe should be the last straw.

After all, Volpe is hardly the first homegrown hitter to don pinstripes amid great hype only to fall well short of it:

Gary Sánchez: 139 OPS+ for 2016-17, 99 OPS+ for 2018-21
Gleyber Torres: 125 OPS+ for 2018-19, 107 OPS+ for 2020-24
Jasson Domínguez: 102 OPS+ for 2023-25
Austin Wells: 104 OPS+ for 2024, 86 OPS+ for 2025

The root of the problem may be how the Yankees handle player development. Their shortcomings in the fundamentals department at the major league level have been well-documented, and both first-hand testimonials and good, ol' reporting suggest nothing is different down on the farm.

It's a bad look, and nobody can say it's a good look that each one of the youngsters mentioned above had their hype deflate under Boone's tutelage. It raises yet another question as to what, exactly, would prompt him to demand accountability from both his young players and the coaches who are supposed to be coaching them.

Of course, Boone's ability to put the best team on the field only stretches so far. That is mainly the front office's job, and Brian Cashman simply doesn't have a good excuse for why Volpe, in particular, has not been sent down to the minors for a confidence-building reset.

To have done so would have been embarrassing, to be sure. But we're watching the alternative play out in real time with Volpe's ongoing immolation in the majors, and it is certainly more embarrassing.

With rosters due to expand on September 1 and the Triple-A season set to end on September 21, there isn't much point in sending Volpe down now. Which leaves these as their best ways forward:

Short Term: Take away his starting role and give it to José Caballero, who's a better defender.

Long Term: Draw up a Performance Improvement Plan for Volpe to follow during the offseason, and make it clear to him that he won't be guaranteed to have his starting job back when he reports for spring training in 2026.

Optional Bonus: Fire Cashman and Boone and replace them with people who have actual innovative ideas.

There's still reason to think that Volpe is too talented to be this bad. He was MLB Pipeline's No. 5 prospect when the Yankees put him at shortstop, after all, and that was after a year in the minors in which he homered 22 times and stole 51 bases. That potential is still worth chasing, even if it means taking a different route.

It's either this or the Yankees can continue sticking with what they've been doing for far too long: Standing in front of something that isn't working and insisting it will work eventually.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.