PHOENIX — Anthony Volpe was in rough shape Sunday, feeling the effects of the Yankees trip to Mexico City.
That was just about the only cause for concern to Volpe’s start to the season.
The Yankees’ shortstop spent the offseason flattening his bat path and saw immediate dividends in the season-opening series, further confirming what the team saw from him this spring.
It went beyond just going 4-for-10 with a double, home run and four walks, though, in three games against the Astros.
Entering Monday’s series opener against the Diamondbacks, Volpe had seen a whopping 70 pitches in 14 plate appearances.
He had swung and missed only twice.
“I think it’s definitely the swing adjustments he’s made,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Certainly the experience and his aptitude, baseball IQ. But swing-and-miss was an issue for him last year. As I’ve talked about since early in the spring, you can clearly see he’s worked hard to plug some holes that the league exposed a little bit at times last year.”
A swing-and-miss rate that minuscule (2.9 percent) is unlikely to remain so low for a full season.
But Volpe appears poised to, at the very least, cut down on the 12.5 percent swing-and-miss rate — which ranked 32nd among 134 qualified big leaguers — he posted during his rookie season, which played a part in him striking out 167 times in 159 games.
Volpe’s strikeout rate of 27.8 percent last year was also the 14th highest among qualified hitters, which was one of the factors in him having the second-lowest on-base percentage at .283.
The Yankees believe the soon-to-be 23-year-old Volpe is capable of being more of an on-base threat than he showed in his rookie season.
He got off on the right foot in that regard during the Astros series, getting on base in eight of his 14 plate appearances.
Volpe looked more settled at the plate, putting together the kind of tough at-bats the Yankees want to be known for with Juan Soto leading the way.
Boone described him as looking like a “way better hitter” after the first game of the season.
“I feel like I’m just setting myself up better for success,” Volpe said. “When I feel like I’m doing that, then everything will take care of itself. Knowing I’m at least putting myself in positions to succeed definitely feels a lot better.”
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Asked why Volpe didn’t make the swing adjustment — which should give him more margin for error on pitches in the strike zone — during the season last year, Boone said it was a “tough question,” indicating it wasn’t that simple.
“Some things you can make subtle adjustments within the season,” Boone said. “Sometimes when you do some overhaul things, that can be really, really difficult within the season. But there’s no question, he committed this winter to making some changes. It’s certainly early, but what we’ve seen over the last month and a half suggests those changes are gonna be really fruitful.”
Boone remembered seeing Volpe’s revamped swing for the first time at the club’s player development complex in early February.
He walked over to the batting cage and immediately could notice the flatter bat path.
“You saw the adjustment that he worked on all winter right away in the cage and then it has just continued to manifest itself as you’ve seen in his work and spring games and now here to start the season,” Boone said.
Having Volpe be more consistent at the plate would only lengthen the Yankees’ lineup, not to mention give them a base-stealing threat if he is able to get on base more.
He has started the season batting sixth (against lefties) or seventh, bumped up in the lineup because of DJ LeMahieu’s foot injury.
The early results were encouraging, though Volpe wanted to keep the focus on his process.
“For me, it’s just day by day,” he said. “What I will say is nice is I feel like we’re working on the right things. When it’s like that and you just keep stacking days, I feel like the results will come.”