NEW YORK — The bigger the spotlight on his individual efforts, the softer Anthony Volpe’s voice gets.
When the Yankees shortstop is asked about his performance in a given game, he tends to brush off the magnitude of his heroics before redirecting the spotlight onto his teammates. That’s how it went late Tuesday night, moments after he hit a grand slam for his first career playoff home run and was brought into the Yankees press conference room to discuss it.
Even though this wasn’t just a typical grand slam — it gave the Yankees a much-needed early lead over the Dodgers in an elimination Game 4 of the World Series — Volpe sat at the podium with the same shy demeanor and soft-spoken voice that he’s exhibited since his major-league debut last year. Only when he was asked to trace his Yankees fandom did the 23-year-old sit up a little straighter and look more confident, more self-assured, in front of the cameras and bright lights.
“My grandfather, the Yankees are more than just a team or an organization for him,” Volpe said. “Because his father fought in World War II when he was little, and by the time he got back, his mom basically told him, ‘This is your dad.’ He didn’t know him, didn’t recognize him, didn’t know anything. The way he says it, the way he got to know and get to know his father was, he sat on his lap every single night, and they listened to the Yankees together. So, for him, it’s more than sports.”
It’s a story he’s told before, but never on the grandest national stage, when there are more eyeballs and attention on the second-year shortstop than he’s ever experienced. Volpe’s shy nature means we might never know, at least not for a while, how much this grand slam that sparked an 11-4 win blowout actually meant to him. But seeing him discuss his teammates’ feats more than his own, and hearing him retell the story of how much the Yankees organization means to his family, it’s easy to see that Volpe’s driving force as an athlete is centered on working hard for the people around him.
If they’re winning, then he is too.
“I love him, he’s like a little brother to me,” Anthony Rizzo said of Volpe. “He works so hard. He cares so much about his teammates. He never really gets down. So, for him to have that moment in the World Series, hometown kid, it’s pretty special.”
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The Yankees forced a Game 5 against the Dodgers not by the hands of Juan Soto, Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton. On a chilly Tuesday night in the Bronx, it was the Baby Bombers who came through in the most important game of their careers to date.
After Volpe, Yankees rookie catcher Austin Wells is the third-youngest player on the Yankees’ World Series roster. He was 0-for-8 at the plate in the Fall Classic when Yankees manager Aaron Boone benched him for Game 3. Rizzo said it was hard for Wells to watch from the dugout, especially as the Yankees fell behind 3-0 in the Series, but it only made how he responded Tuesday that much more impactful.
Wells ripped a 406-foot double off the padding in center field in his first at-bat of the night, then crushed a solo shot to right field to lead off the sixth. Not only did the rookie’s second home run of the postseason double a Yankees lead that had been trimmed to one, it reminded the 49,354 fans in attendance that, no matter how this World Series ends, the Yankees’ future will be bright behind Volpe and Wells.
“It’s not really a friendship anymore. It’s a brotherhood,” Volpe said of his relationship with Wells. “We’ve been through it all together. The highest of highs, and at some point, the lowest of lows. He’s my first call, my last call. I know he has my back through thick and thin. To have a moment like that, for him to have a moment like that is special. But to do it together, you can’t trade it for anything.”
The Yankees catcher echoed Volpe’s sentiment, and added that it was clear to him as soon as he got to know the shortstop in the Yankees’ minor-league system that they had the same goals of being able to contribute to a historic franchise. Neither of them wanted to be superstars, per se. They just wanted to help the Yankees win another title, even if all they provided were modest contributions. Alas, Volpe’s clutch at-bat was anything but.
Wells said Volpe’s grand slam in the third inning — which followed another Freddie Freeman two-run home run in the first — allowed the Yankees to take a deep breath, relax and enjoy playing baseball. He said his teammates were just waiting for that “one big swing” to break out of the funk that had marked three consecutive World Series losses.
“I think the situation we were in, we just kind of needed to say screw it and go after it and have fun because some guys may never come back to the World Series again,” Wells said. “So, just enjoying the game, and I think that allowed us to play a lot looser tonight.”
It’s well known by now that Volpe grew up in New Jersey rooting for the Bronx Bombers and idolizing Derek Jeter. Now that he’s effectively in Jeter’s shoes, the pressure to excel at the highest level, in front of the largest media market in the world, all while getting scrutinized for every misplay, big or small, can be a lot. Perhaps some of the tension got to Volpe in the second inning, when he misread Wells’ long double and looked to tag up from second before having to hold at third.
Volpe ended up touching home plate on Alex Verdugo’s RBI groundout, and he more than made up for his gaffe with his grand slam. But he still took accountability after the game: “That’s completely on me.” Initially frustrated with himself, Volpe relaxed after his teammates reminded him through their own excellent at-bats in Game 4 that they’d pick him up. Sometimes, his quiet demeanor makes him come off as one of the most serious guys on the Yankees roster. But left-hander Nestor Cortes set the record straight.
“He’s got a little fire in him. A little zest,” Cortes said. “He’s a little sassy. He’s becoming a little slicker, which is good. It’s good for him. He came up as a highly touted prospect. A lot of people expected him to be the next Jeter. That’s very hard to do. I think he’s gonna become a really good player — he already is. But I think he’s going to embrace who he is and write his own narrative and chapter here. He doesn’t have to follow who Jeter was.”
Volpe was excellent in this postseason even before he became the fourth-youngest player to hit a grand slam in the World Series. He entered the Fall Classic batting .310 with eight walks, six runs scored and an .804 OPS in nine playoff games. Now, the shortstop is the Yankees’ World Series RBI leader with five. More importantly, he’s the biggest reason there will be a Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday.
Maybe as he logs more moments like his grand slam, he’ll stand up a little taller, speak a little louder, and come out of his shell.
But what Volpe’s shown us so far in his young career is that he doesn’t need the big spotlight or the outrageous comparisons to a Yankees Hall of Famer to come up clutch for his team.
He just needs to be himself.
“The more he does it, the more he needs to go out there and talk,” Cortes said. “The more he becomes the player of the game, I think you’ll see his personality a little more.”
Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
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