NEW YORK \u2014 Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran stood on second base and laughed. Duran likely could not believe that New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe gave the Red Sox a free base runner in a 1-0 game in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n
Ceddanne Rafaela hit a ground ball to shortstop that should have been an easy out for the Yankees with closer David Bednar on the mound. Instead, Volpe was unable to get any outs. Volpe fielded the ball and threw it to Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second base, trying to get Duran. Duran initially broke for third base but quickly retreated. He was already on the second base bag by the time Chisholm caught Volpe\u2019s throw. Yankees manager Aaron Boone had no qualms about his shortstop costing his club a base runner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obviously not the right play,\u201d Boone said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of a heady play, too. He almost caught a guy off in scoring position there, and then he doesn\u2019t come around to score anyway. He makes a really good play on the contact play. Are we going to really dive into that one a lot? I mean, I get it. It wasn\u2019t an out, but it\u2019s kind of a heads-up (play). Almost got a guy napping.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Volpe was able to throw out Duran at the plate two batters later on a failed contact play from the Red Sox, but the Yankees should not defend their shortstop\u2019s failure to record an out in an obvious situation with the game tight. It is not a heads-up play to force a pitcher to potentially have to throw more pitches when a play is as obvious as this one was. Even Yankee great Paul O\u2019Neill, who was on the YES broadcast, was exasperated by Volpe\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
There was a minute possibility of Volpe getting Duran at second base. The only chance they had to convert the play was if Volpe had fired the throw to Chisholm, but then there\u2019s the risk the throw goes into right field and Duran, who\u2019s speedy, scores. The risk of a play like this one is too great in a divisional game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Duran doesn\u2019t affect the throw where he\u2019s getting back, Jazz still might complete the play,\u201d Boone said. \u201cNot the right play, probably, but in some ways, a heads-up play, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Yankees have been consistent in their support of Volpe, treating him as if he can do no wrong. Their unwavering backing of him is undeserved. Volpe has been one of the sport\u2019s least valuable players this season. He has the third-worst wRC+ among all qualified shortstops. He\u2019s been the ninth-worst base runner among all shortstops by FanGraphs\u2019 base running runs above average metric. And he\u2019s been the third-worst defender at shortstop in outs above average. His .276 on-base percentage is the third-worst among all qualified hitters in MLB. The Yankees treat Volpe as if he\u2019s untouchable and above recourse.<\/p>\n
Volpe heard loud boos from the sellout crowd in Friday night\u2019s 1-0 loss after striking out on three pitches in the eighth inning. Volpe was fooled on a changeup low and out of the zone, extending his current slump to 1-for-25. Giancarlo Stanton pinch-hit for Ryan McMahon, the next batter, against right-handed reliever Garrett Whitlock. Boone was asked if he considered pinch-hitting for Volpe instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhitlock being a little bit of reverse (splits), if Volpe is able to get on there, we got a base-running situation there,\u201d Boone said. \u201cI was debating whether to take my shot with G there or with Mac.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitlock does not have reverse splits. He has neutral splits against both hands in his career; righties have a career .670 OPS and lefties a .663 OPS. This season, righties have a .559 OPS and lefties a .553 OPS.<\/p>\n
Volpe posted a .933 OPS in his first 14 games after the All-Star break, leading to internal belief that an adjustment he made would lead to better results in the second half. Instead, it\u2019s followed a similar pattern from his first two seasons in which his offense has cratered after an initial surge. His OPS since those 14 games is .454.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a few weeks there, he really had it rolling,\u201d Boone said Thursday. \u201cNow, a week where he hasn\u2019t had much going. We got to find that, because I certainly see it on both sides when he\u2019s going well. It\u2019s like, man, he\u2019s starting on time. He\u2019s in sync. He\u2019s recognizing pitches well, and then he falls off a little bit. The biggest challenge for us and for Volpe right now is trying to get him to that next level where there\u2019s always going to be ebbs and flows offensively. That\u2019s the nature of the beast, but trying to tighten those up a little bit. That\u2019s what we continue to work at.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Yankees have Jos\u00e9 Caballero on the bench, who has played well in limited action since being acquired at the trade deadline from the Tampa Bay Rays, but they continue to believe in Volpe. They believe he\u2019s a well-above-average defender despite the metrics saying otherwise this season. They believe the at-bat quality isn\u2019t as bad as it looks to everyone watching. They always say no one on this roster works harder at his craft than he does.<\/p>\n
If that last sentence is true, should there not be some concern that, in Year 3, he has regressed in nearly every area of his game? Yet the Yankees say all is well with the former No. 1 prospect in the organization. It\u2019s not.<\/p>\n
(Photo: Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran stood on second base and laughed. Duran likely could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,3980,82],"class_list":["post-90703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}