Derek Jeter called Anthony Volpe after Yankees' Opening Day decision
New York Yankees rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe received a special call after he made the Opening Day roster earlier this spring.
As shared by Greg Joyce of the New York Post, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner explained during the latest edition of "The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman" podcast how he set up a phone call between Volpe and Yankees legend Derek Jeter shortly after Volpe officially won the starting job in March.
Jeter served as Volpe's childhood hero, and the 22-year-old has repeatedly been compared to the former Yankees captain.
"Jeter was nice enough to talk to him for a little bit and give him some words of encouragement," Steinbrenner said. "It was a great meeting."
Jeter also took to Twitter to congratulate Volpe ahead of Opening Day:
Like many MLB rookies, Volpe has produced a mixed bag of results at the plate and entered Tuesday's matchup at the Toronto Blue Jays batting .217 with six home runs and 17 RBI across 43 games. Manager Aaron Boone noted last week he had been "really pleased" with Volpe throughout the spring, and Steinbrenner added he believes the club made the right choice in featuring Volpe as the team's starting shortstop over Oswald Peraza and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
"It was almost unanimous with everybody that was in the room during that final meeting in talking about him," Steinbrenner said of that decision. "The right message was delivered to him: I sat down with him before camp broke and I told him, 'You are our starting shortstop for 2023. This is not a trial. It’s going to be that way through the ups and the potential downs.'"
The Yankees have endured plenty of downs since Opening Day and began Tuesday evening trailing the first-place Tampa Bay Rays by seven-and-a-half games in the American League East standings. Despite that, everyone involved sounds hopeful Volpe will become a vital part of the Bronx Bombers righting the ship before summer begins.
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