Should Yankees demote struggling shortstop Anthony Volpe?

Anthony Volpe strikes out for the Yankees against the Red Sox (Lloyd Mitchell, amNew York)

Back in March, Anthony Volpe was the feel-good story dominating Yankees coverage. Now, as the summer starts heating up, so does the pressure on the young shortstop to perform up to expectations. 

While Volpe has made highlights this season with his nine home runs and 14 steals in 67 games, his overall performance has not been consistent. 

In his first 31 games, he hit .230 with three homers, nine RBIs, and a .706 OPS. Despite those not being eye-popping numbers, he continued to slot into the Yankees lineup every day and even hit leadoff for a brief stretch of time.

However, all of that has changed of late. 

Over his next 35 games, Volpe is hitting just .141 with a .524 OPS. His six home runs and 17 RBIs over that stretch simply can’t mask the overall struggles he’s having at the plate.

Among qualified hitters, Volpe has the worst on-base percentage in all of baseball at .260, just behind Javier Baez. He also has the third-worst batting average in baseball, ahead of just Nick Maton and Kyle Schwarber, and even with his home runs, he has the 13th-worst slugging percentage in the league and the 4th-worst wRC+ (weighted runs created plus). 

His 77 strikeouts are the most on the Yankees with Aaron Judge coming in second with 63 strikeouts despite having 40 fewer plate appearances.

Any way you shake it right now, Anthony Volpe does not look ready to handle major league pitching, which begs the question of whether he would be better served to head to Triple-A, a level he has actually never played at, and try to iron out his flaws. 

It’s a strategy that the St. Louis Cardinals used with top prospect Jordan Walker earlier this season. 

Much like Volpe, Walker jumped right from Double-A to the majors. In fact, MLB.com had Walker ranked as the 4th-best prospect in baseball entering spring training, with Volpe right behind him at 5th.

After having an impressive…