Yankees’ top prospect Anthony Volpe hasn’t played a regular-season game in the big leagues yet, but he already faced a nasty 12-to-6 curve ball.
And it was manager Aaron Boone who was uncorking the pitch.
The sixth-year skipper called the prized shortstop into his office Sunday and, with general manager Brian Cashman and several coaches present, Boone started the conversation by making it appear he was informing Volpe he’d be going to Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre to start the season.
“It’s a difficult conversation we have to have,’’ was the way Boone started the conversation as a concerned Volpe looked on silently, “because you came in and played your ass off and we talked about this at the start being a competition and you killed it.
“But at the end of the day, you’ve got 22 games at Triple-A and there’s always room for development,’’ the cruel skipper continued, before finally changing his tune.
“At the end, I think that development should happen in the big leagues,’’ Boone continued before slapping his hand on his desk. “welcome, to New York.’’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4llp492YbyE
Boone, Volpe and Cashman each started laughing as the manager and star prospect shook hands, then embraced.
“My heart’s beating,’’ laughed Volpe, who then walked to Cashman and shared a hug with the GM as well.
Volpe, who outplayed both Oswald Peraza and Isiah Kiner-Falefa to land the starting shortstop job, is ranked as the No. 5 prospect in all of baseball by MLB Pipeline. At 21-year-old, he’ll be the youngest shortstop to start for the Yankees since a guy named Derek Jeter did the same in the spring of 1996.
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