Yankees owner addresses possible demotion for Anthony Volpe

New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and manager Aaron Boone are in agreement about a possible demotion to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders for struggling rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe. 

"I told Anthony at the end of spring training, 'I said you were starting shortstop of the New York Yankees,'" Steinbrenner told reporters on Tuesday, per Joon Lee of ESPN. "'This isn't a three-week trial. So you're going to be that through the ups and through the potential downs, and there probably will be downs.'"

Boone offered a similar vote of confidence regarding Volpe last month and more recently did so during Tuesday's edition of the "Talkin' Yanks'" podcast even though the 22-year-old went into the evening's contest at the New York Mets slashing a lackluster .186/.260/.345/.605 with nine home runs and 26 RBI across 67 games. Steinbrenner insisted he and Boone have had "zero conversations" about exchanging Volpe for Oswald Peraza, who is hitting .311 with 10 home runs, 21 RBI and a .980 OPS in Triple-A. 

Volpe won the big league starting job over both Peraza and Isiah Kiner-Falefa ahead of Opening Day. 

"Well you never know, but right now he's [Peraza] at Triple-A. He's having a good year," Steinbrenner added during his comments. "We'll see. I wasn't sure at the beginning of the season that either one of them would be starting for us. I knew they were coming and I knew they were coming strong, but I don't believe I was ever out there saying it with the plan to have both of them playing at the beginning of 2023."

Patience can only be so much of a virtue for a Yankees (38-29) team that entered Tuesday's MLB action sitting in third place in the American League East standings and trailing the first-place Tampa Bay Rays by a whopping nine games. Meanwhile, The Athletic's Brendan Kuty explained that Volpe's history suggests he could be on the cusp of turning things around. 

"He hit just .170 through his first 30 games at Double-A Somerset," Kuty wrote about Volpe's experience last year. "After that...Volpe finished his final 80 games at the level with a .281 batting average, 14 homers and a .890 OPS. Then the Yankees promoted him to Triple-A."