Aaron Boone is convinced batting leadoff has nothing to do with Anthony Volpe’s recent struggles.
“Zero is the role [it has] I think,” the Yankees’ manager said before his team won the opener of a three-game series against the surprising Tigers, 2-1, in The Bronx on Friday night.
Volpe, the second-year shortstop who got off to such a strong start this season, has hit the skids of late.
He entered Friday slashing .262/.345/.390 with a .734 OPS, quality numbers that were better than what he posted as a rookie.
But since he moved into the leadoff spot on April 10, Volpe has gone into a funk.
He entered the night in a 4-for-29 stretch with nine strikeouts, and dating back to his move up the batting order, Volpe is slashing .209/.299/.291, with a 590 OPS.
Volpe remained atop the batting order Friday, where he went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
“He’s been all right. He’s still mixing in his hits. Hasn’t been as hot as he was probably the first couple of weeks,” Boone said. “But I think it has zero to do with the leadoff position. That’s the ebbs and flows of the season, especially with young players. It’s hard to hit in the league. I don’t feel like he’s far off from [breaking out], and I feel even watching him now, he’s such a better major league hitter than he was a year ago at this time.”
The Yankees made the decision to insert Volpe into the leadoff spot due to Gleyber Torres’ struggles there and DJ LeMahieu’s unavailability with a non-displaced right foot fracture that has kept him sidelined since mid-March.
Despite his offensive woes of late, Boone has kept Volpe in the leadoff spot, and isn’t ready to move him out yet.
“We’ll see. We’ll continue to get people back into the mix and we’ll see,” Boone said. “But yeah, I don’t worry about where Anthony hits and how he handles it. He’s not one of those guys I worry about with that. … At the time, I felt the need to do it just where we were from a personnel standpoint. He was the guy who could handle it. I felt like I needed to get Gleyber out of there. It’s just the inevitable of how hard it is to be a hitter in this league. I don’t think that’s the reason [for his struggles].”
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