NEW YORK — “Volpe’s on deck.”
Matt Hyde, a Northeast area scout for the Yankees, used to send that text to his colleagues, crosscheckers and superiors whenever Anthony Volpe stepped to the plate. The messages, which began during a tournament in Jupiter, Fla. during the Fall of Volpe’s senior year of high school, also included the name or number of whatever field his game took place on.
They served as an alert: Something exciting is about to happen. Get your butts over here.
“It was almost like, ‘Oh shit, here we go,’” Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankees’ director of amateur scouting, told the New York Daily News of the running gag. “It got to be comical actually because I was so persistent with it,” Hyde added.
By this point, the Yankees were already well acquainted with their future shortstop — Volpe, 21, will start on Opening Day against the Giants — thanks in large part to Hyde, his first connection to the club.
He began coaching Volpe and Delbarton teammate Jack Leiter — now in the Rangers’ system — on the Yankees’ under-class Area Code team during the summer of 2017. The two New Jerseyans then suited up for Hyde’s upper-class squad the following year.
“The minute I met him, I just thought it was such a great representation of the Yankees organization and what it means to be a Yankee,” Volpe told The News. He noted that he loved Hyde’s passion on the field and the attention he paid to details.
Hyde remembers one particular game that first summer, in Compton, Calif. when Volpe came up to the plate with the bases loaded and his team down three. The speedy teen roped a ball for an inside-the-park grand slam; Volpe blew through a stop sign to score the winning run.
“He had an incredible knack for making things happen and being a big part of helping the team win,” Hyde told The News. “Whether it was making a really good defensive play, coming up with a clutch hit, stealing a base, he always seemed to embrace the moment. And the moments seemed to always find him.”
Those two summers with Hyde laid the groundwork for the Bombers to draft Volpe, a childhood fan of the Yankees and Derek Jeter, with the 30th overall pick in 2019. Asked if it’s fair to say Volpe wouldn’t be a Yankee if not for Hyde, the infielder replied “definitely” without hesitation.
But other members of the team’s scouting department played pivotal roles in securing a commitment from Volpe, who earned a scholarship to Vanderbilt alongside Leiter.
As Hyde raved about Volpe, Oppenheimer began spending time with the kid and his parents, Michael and Isabelle, during tournaments and showcases. He came away enamored with Volpe’s raw talent, but also his makeup.
Oppenheimer said that character is a crucial, if not quantifiable, factor in the Yankees’ scouting process. It’s partly why he and Hyde were so high on Volpe.
“I tell the scouts, ‘We need to get on the other side of the fence,’” Oppenheimer explained. “Most of the time you think of scouts, we’re sitting in the stands and we’re watching. We obviously do that. But the other part of the job is to get on the other side of the fence and get to know the player, what he’s like in the dugout, what his coaches have to say about him, what his teachers have to say about him. And then, obviously, trying to figure out what his parents are like.”
Jim Hendry, the former Cubs general manager turned Yankees special assignment scout, took that message to heart. The baseball lifer met with Volpe and his parents a few times before the 2019 draft — in addition to phone calls with Michael — even though all signs pointed to Volpe honoring his verbal Vanderbilt commitment.
One particular dinner, about a month before the draft, made a lasting impression on the family. Rather than wooing Volpe with his big league dreams and a signing bonus worth millions, Hendry told it straight over a meal at Roots Steakhouse in Morristown, New Jersey.
He spoke highly of Vanderbilt, and he assured Volpe that the school would provide lifelong memories on the field and a top-notch education off of it. A former coach at Creighton, Hendry reflected on his 1991 College World Series experience and all the joy it brought him.
“I’ll never BS kids,” Hendry told The News. Volpe appreciates that to this day.
“He was just super honest with me, and he laid it all out for me. Just the fact that he took the time to talk to me and my family really, really went a long way,” Volpe said. “I don’t know if it was shocking, but the authenticity meant a lot to us.”
But Hendry also knew that Volpe and his family loved the Yankees. If any team was going to sway him from college, it was them. And odds were that the annually competitive franchise would never get another stab at drafting Volpe if he went to school and became the player Hendry thought he could be — someone comparable to Alex Bregman, who played shortstop at LSU before manning third for the Astros.
Hendry made sure that Volpe knew all that.
“I said, ‘If you want to be a Yankee, this is your only chance,’” Hendry recalled. “‘Because if you go to Vanderbilt, you’re gonna go out in the first five picks [in three years], and we’re not ever gonna pick at those spots.’”
Those words weighed on Volpe, but they didn’t seal the deal on the spot. As the draft drew nearer, he still saw college in his immediate future.
“It was a pretty thought-out process. I mean, I was probably 95 percent going to Vandy until two weeks before the draft,” Volpe revealed, but he ultimately settled on the “once in a lifetime opportunity” in front of him: a shot to turn pro and play for the team he grew up rooting for.
“All things happen for a reason,” Volpe said with a smile, “and they played out pretty well.”
As Volpe prepared for his first Opening Day in the Bronx, he wanted to make sure that another Yankees Northeast area scout, the late Kelly Rodman, also received credit for the journey that landed him in New York.
Like Hyde, Rodman became incredibly close with the adolescent Volpe. She died of cancer at age 44 in March 2020 — just a few months after she watched Volpe sign his first contract with the Yankees.
On Wednesday, the YES Network’s Jack Curry reported that Volpe will wear No. 11 after donning 77 all spring. Hyde said that Rodman used to sport a No. 11 Yankees jersey during the Area Code Games and other scouting events.
Even before that decision, Volpe was attached to Rodman’s legacy, though he feels her contributions to the Yankees “goes way beyond me.”
“She never wanted to be famous for anything, but everyone that was around the organization and around her knew how important she was,” Volpe continued. “We still do, and we still miss her. At the same time, we know she’s looking down, and we’re trying to make her proud.”
Hyde is confident that Volpe achieved that long before he made the Yankees’ roster. He described Volpe and Rodman as “kindred spirits” and said, “AV has already made her proud by being the person he is and by how he plays the game.”
“She will forever be smiling down on his journey in baseball,” Hyde resumed. “I have a coin from her in my wallet that has on it, ‘Be Great Today!’ She wanted that to be her lasting legacy — give it your best, be the best version of yourself — and no one embodies that spirit more than Anthony Volpe.”
Hyde is certainly proud, too. He will be in attendance Thursday when Volpe takes the shortstop position at Yankee Stadium for the first time. It will be a celebratory moment years in the making for the scout, but also the start of a brand new chapter.
Hyde sees big things in Volpe’s future, just like he has since their first summer together.
“He knows that he hasn’t arrived yet,” Hyde said. “He still has room to grow as a player. He doesn’t believe he’s landed on his full potential yet.”
And as for Volpe’s first at-bat in pinstripes? Hyde already has a text prepared:
“Volpe on deck. Field — Yankee Stadium.”
