Wherever Anthony Volpe hits in the order, he needs to keep adjusting.
Such was the message from Yankees hitting coach James Rowson, who watched the club’s shortstop soar up to the leadoff spot after a great first few weeks of the season, then hit a prolonged slump that dropped him out of the top of the order beginning Thursday.
When the Yankees opened a series with the Red Sox in The Bronx a day later, Volpe was hitting seventh.
Early this season, Rowson said, pitchers tried to attack Volpe at the top of the zone.
When Volpe got around to that pitch then pitchers tried to jam him.
Next came a lot of sliders, “and he was able to make that adjustment,” Rowson added.
For Volpe, who entered Friday in a funk, his on-base percentage down to .307, hitting too many ground balls and with just six home runs in his first 88 games, it was time for one more adjustment.
“[Opposing pitchers are] finding out those spots now,” Rowson said Friday. “But I think over time he has the aptitude and ability to keep making adjustments with the league. So I’m pretty proud of what he’s done this year.”
Statistically, Volpe’s year has been a mixed bag.
The 23-year-old has shown significant growth from his rookie season, but expectations were heightened after he posted a .444 OBP and 1.044 OPS after 11 games, which prompted the rise to the top of the order beginning April 10.
Volpe was solid, if not special, for about two months atop the lineup.
But in 25 games from June 6 through Wednesday, he batted .183, walked three times and struck out 29 times.
The Yankees could not continue to bat a hitter with a .203 OBP in that span in front of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, so Ben Rice replaced him.
It is likely that pitchers attacked Volpe differently when two of the game’s best hitters followed him.
As a middle- or bottom-of-the-order bat to begin the season, 53.2 percent of the pitches Volpe saw were out of the zone.
During his time as leadoff hitter, the percentage of out-of-the-zone pitches shrunk to 48.8.
Perhaps part of Volpe’s downturn entailed opposing pitchers throwing him more strikes, not wanting to walk a runner in front of Soto and Judge.
“My instincts tell me [pitchers are] obviously going to think about [an at-bat] a little bit differently with those guys being 2 or 3 and leading off the game,” Rowson said.
Maybe a return to a softer part of the lineup can help Volpe.
But Rowson did not believe that the pressures of hitting first played a part in the slump.
“This kid is so mentally tough and is so good at what he does,” Rowson said of the second-year major leaguer. “He’s going to be able to do what he needs to do wherever he’s at in the order. That’s how I feel about him.
“I feel like this kid is different. He’s made from a different cloth. He’s always going to compete. and he’s always going to battle. So I think whether he’s 1, 5, 6, 7, wherever you want to go with it, he’s going to give you the best version of himself.”
