The Yankees Are Playing The Wrong Shortstop!

Saying a player is hitting balls hard is a cop out for the player. There, I said it.  

You don’t build an average; you don’t help your team if you are hitting balls hard and getting out.  Can we just stop the nonsense? Anthony Volpe is Mario Mendoza plain and simple. He’s got a marketable face, but that’s about it.  My #11 Jersey is a Brett Gardner jersey, plain and simple.

Another chapter in the tragic comedy that is Anthony Volpe: Shortstop of the Future. Except now it’s 2025, and the future has arrived… and it’s batting .198.

Let’s rewind to Tuesday night in Cleveland. Top of the eighth. Yankees down a run. Two outs. Runners on first and second. Prime time for a clutch hit. Instead, Anthony Volpe steps in and does what Anthony Volpe does best these days — works the count to 2-2 and then flails helplessly at a slider from Evan Gaddis. Strike three. For those keeping score at home, that was his third consecutive swing-and-miss in the at-bat, following two high fastballs that looked like they were in a different zip code.

Volpe’s final line? A mighty 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Through April 23, at that point he was limping along with a .209 batting average and a career-worst 27.1% strikeout rate, according to FanGraphs. The guy’s missing hittable pitches in the strike zone like he’s being paid to sabotage rallies.

Kristie Ackert of Athlon Sports tried to spin the numbers into something hopeful, writing:

“He is hitting the ball harder. His average exit velocity has jumped to 90.3 mph (up from 87.7 last year), and he’s already posted a 13.8% barrel rate, higher than both his 2023 and 2024 marks combined. The Yankees even gave him the controversial ‘torpedo bat’ to lean into that power. But his line drive rate is down to 15.5%, and his fly ball rate is up to 31.0%, with many of those poorly struck.”

Translation: He’s swinging harder… but he’s still not hitting anything.

Pitchers? They’ve adjusted. 

Volpe’s whiff rate on fastballs is now creeping toward 30%, and breaking stuff has turned him into a human windmill. He’s 0-for-13 this season combined against sliders, curveballs, and changeups — with a jaw-dropping whiff rate of over 45%. Tuesday night’s strikeout wasn’t just a bad at-bat; it was a flashing neon sign of a much deeper problem. He’s swinging smarter, maybe. But swinging smarter doesn’t mean much when you still miss nearly half the time. Pitchers adjusted to Kevin Maas too and he eventually faded away.

And while the Yankees keep doubling down on Volpe like a gambler chasing bad bets, Oswald Peraza remains the obvious better option — and somehow, still the overlooked one.

Let’s talk about Peraza. Better defender? Absolutely. Smoother glove, quicker hands, and doesn’t boot the routine plays that Volpe turns into heart attacks. Offensively? He’s not a .209 hitter. He never has been. Peraza can hit for average, doesn’t strike out in bunches, and brings real poise to the plate. No gimmicky “torpedo bat” required — just good old-fashioned ability.

And yet, the Yankees hitched their wagon to Volpe like he was the next Jeter — but he’s playing more like the second coming of Eduardo Núñez without the fun speed. The organization made their pick, and it’s painfully clear they backed the wrong horse, again.

Volpe’s been given every opportunity, every headline, every ounce of patience. And yet, here we are: still watching him chase sliders and pop up to second like clockwork.

Meanwhile, Oswald Peraza — the better fielder, the better contact hitter, the guy who doesn’t look like a deer in the headlights with runners on — waits in the wings. Or worse, rides a bus to Scranton. The Yankees need to face reality: they chose the wrong shortstop.

It’s not too late to fix it. But if they keep pretending Volpe is the answer, they’re going to keep getting the same result — weak contact, high whiffs, and another season of wasted potential. Let Peraza play. He’s earned it. And frankly, he deserves better than watching this mess from the bench.

Finally, I just want to say this; I’m not ripping on Kristie Ackert at all. She is admired and respected. What I am ripping on is this new world of “hitting balls hard” and nothing to show for it.  When I grew up you looked at a dude’s average, dingers and RBIs.  If he didn’t strike out that was a plus and if he could swipe a few bags, that was great too. But that’s all you needed to know when a player was solid or not.  This world of “hitting balls hard” and batting .191 is the dumbest form of baseball I’ve ever seen. There is no progress for that player, in fact, they should probably just give it up.  And so there, I had to say that.  Hey Kristie, respect!