Yankees’ Anthony Volpe lives up to hype and more in 1st Grapefruit League start

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza was blown away just throwing batting practice Sunday to Anthony Volpe. He’s seen a lot of the organization’s No. 1 prospect on video and watched a few spring training at-bats last year when when Volpe was summoned from the minor-league camp for Grapefruit League cameos.

Standing out there in front of the mound throwing BP fastballs on this sun-splashed day at TD Ballpark, spring home of the Toronto Blue Jays, Mendoza got a better gauge of what Volpe is all about as a hitter.

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“The way he impacts the baseball … it’s batting practice, but watching him drive the ball the other way with ease, he’s impressive,” Mendoza said before a 9-5 Yankees victory. “He has a nice inside-out swing, impacting the baseball with a forward pass. That really stands out so far.”

Those swings were just a preview of what would become a memorable day.

Sunday was a day of firsts for Volpe, who is in his first big-league spring training: first spring-training start, first hit, first two-hit game, first two stolen bases.

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If Volpe someday develops into a Yankees great, like some are forecasting, this split-squad game against the Jays will be a bit historic, too.

Leading off and playing five innings at shortstop, Volpe was 2-for-4 with three ropes … a first-inning line drive to shortstop, a second-inning hustling double to right, and a fourth-inning single to left that was followed two steals. He also easily handled two ground balls.

“He put his tools on display,” Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson said. “He had some really nice at-bats. The first at-bat, he smoked the ball, but got out. After that, it was impressive, taking that slider and hitting it the other way. He hit a first-pitch fastball (for a single). He ran the bases extremely well. He was showing off.”

As usual, Volpe was humble before hopping on a team bus for a short ride back to Tampa.

“It was great to get back on the field and compete,” Volpe said. “It’s just spring training, but cool to be on the same team as Donaldson and hit behind him.”

Volpe opened eyes lining out hard on the first pitch of the game, then more so in his next at-bat when he roped a liner to right field that fell in. Off the bat, he was thinking two bases, and he made it with a head-first slide into second.

“Just push it and see what happens,” Volpe said.

After his second hit, Volpe stole second base and then third base on the next pitch. He took off both times while knowing Blue Jays righty reliever Luke Bard was slow to the plate. Volpe swiped 56 bags in 64 tries last season for Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

“I had the green, but at the same time our first-base coach was really dialed in on having the scouting reports on all of the pitchers,” Volpe said. “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to him for giving me the info to have the confidence to take the bag.”

Mendoza, who managed the Yankees against the Jays with Aaron Boone handling Sunday’s 7-0 win over the Braves in Tampa, has been watching Volpe closely in these early days of spring training.

Volpe, a Watchung, N.J. native, has stood out as much as his talent, which has him ranked a top-five prospect in the majors by MLB Pipeline two years in a row.

“The makeup … everybody talks about it,” Mendoza said. “Just watching him go about his business on a daily basis ... first time in big-league camp with a lot of superstars around and just the way he goes about it, he’s a total pro. He gets in early, he gets his work in and then he gets out of the way and just watches some of the older guys.

“When you see him out on the field, you can see the abilities just the way he moves around the infield, how fundamentally sound he is, which is impressive. The attention to detail from his work really stands out to me.”

Donaldson is seeing the same things.

“He seems like he has a good head on his shoulders,” Donaldson said. “I haven’t had the chance to be around him too much, but from what I have seen of him, it seems like he’s got a good idea who he is, which was nice.”

Volpe showed who he is in his first spring training start.

“It’s easy to focus on the results, but just the way he went about it,” Mendoza said, “the hustle, the intensity, the focus. First at-bat, first pitch, ready to go, line drive right at the shortstop. Second at-bat, single but out of the box he’s thinking two and, sure enough, he got to second base. Again, the way he went about it and the way he played the game, that’s what I loved.”