Cashman On Yanks Prospect Anthony Volpe: ‘He Looks Like The Real Deal’

Image credit: Anthony Volpe (Photo by Mike Janes/Four Seam)

CARLSBAD, Calif.—The Yankees had 12 first-round or supplemental first-round picks from 2009-18. Only four of those picks have reached the majors, and only one—Aaron Judge—has more than 1.5 career wins above replacement as measured by Baseball-Reference.

Given that recent track record in the draft, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman described 2019 first-rounder Anthony Volpe’s breakout performance this season as “refreshing” Tuesday at the annual GM meetings.

Related: See Volpe’s full scouting report in our new Yankees prospect rankings

Volpe, 20, hit .294/.423/.604 with 27 home runs, 86 RBIs and 33 stolen bases across Low-A and High-A. He led the minors with 113 runs scored and finished second with a 1.027 OPS, rising to No. 22 on the BA Top 100 in the process.

“He just dominated from start to finish at multiple levels and it was just refreshing,” Cashman said. “It’s nice to see because you always have the other side of it play out most of the time. Players either take a long time to develop or they don’t develop like you thought and maybe they weren’t what you thought they could be. It’s nice to see his performance, his tool package, his makeup, his work ethic, his character, all coming to fruition. He definitely looks like the real deal so we’re excited about that, for our fans and for our organization.”

The Yankees drafted Volpe 30th overall in 2019 out of Delbarton High in Morristown, N.J., 41 miles west of Yankee Stadium. He contracted mononucleosis shortly after being drafted and didn’t play in 2020 after the minor league season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Volpe’s 5-foot-11, 180-pound frame and lack of overwhelming physical tools out of high school led many to question his upside, but the Yankees felt differently and compared him to another undersized infielder who has become an all-star and MVP candidate. From Cashman’s view, given his first full, healthy season, Volpe lived up to the organization’s expectations more than surpassed them.

“He just kind of lived up to the billing to be quite honest,” Cashman said. “When we drafted him in the back of the first round our amateur department did a really great job. And you know, a lot of the narratives and the grades on these scouting reports on a year in and year out basis talk about what this player potentially could be, names like Alex Bregman and stuff like that. With the Covid season and in his maiden voyage obviously he had mono, so this was the first full year where he didn’t have to deal with any of that, and he just kind backed up everything those reports said he possibly could be.”