The Yankees have been sputtering since Aaron Judge went down with a toe injury early this month. One player helping to keep things from going completely off the rails is rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe—and he’s doing so with a little help from an Italian-American classic.
Volpe, MLB.com’s No. 5 prospect in baseball before this season, has struggled at the plate halfway through his first season in the majors, posting an underwhelming .203/.282/.368 slash line. But he’s turned things around of late, thanks in part to a realization he had during a get-together with some old teammates.
According to a June 14 story in the New York Daily News by Gary Phillips, Volpe invited some of his 2022 minor league teammates over to his house in New Jersey on the Yankees’ June 12 off day. The players “hung out, dined on chicken parm and reminisced while going over old at-bats,” Phillips wrote.
Anthony Volpe in 12 games since Austin Wells told him to adjust his batting stance over chicken parm dinner:
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) June 28, 2023
11-for-35 (.314), HR, 4 2B, 6 BB, .929 OPS pic.twitter.com/RT3eP2j7pn
It was during that party that Volpe and catching prospect Austin Wells (No. 4 on MLB.com’s preseason Yankees list) realized something about Volpe’s batting stance.
“Kind of a little stuff with my stance and how I set up to hit,” Volpe said. “It was so small, but we both kind of noticed it and started talking about it. I think we both took a lot away from it.”
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In his first game after the chicken parm party, using his retooled stance, Volpe went 2-for-4 with two doubles. In the 12 games since making the adjustment, his slash line is a much improved .314/.415/.514. That’s 146 point improvement in his OPS compared to his first 67 games. In Tuesday night’s disappointing 2–1 loss to the A’s, Volpe was the lone bright spot for the Yankees, going 3-for-4 from the eighth spot in the batting order.
That must have been some great chicken parm.
