NEW YORK — After tearing the cover off the ball from the bottom half of the Yankees’ order over the first few weeks of the regular season, Anthony Volpe was pushed up to the leadoff spot for Wednesday night’s series finale against the Marlins.
The decision is an obvious byproduct of Volpe’s early-season success. The shortstop has been one of the best hitters in baseball, hitting .375 (second-best in the American League) with a .444 on-base percentage and churning out quality at-bats.
According to manager Aaron Boone, however, there’s more to this decision than simply riding the hot hand.
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Promoting Volpe to hit first allows the Yankees to get second baseman Gleyber Torres out the leadoff spot. He’s penciled in to bat sixth between lefties Anthony Rizzo and Alex Verdugo on Wednesday night.
Boone thinks Torres — who is hitting .200 (10-for-50) in 2024, all from the top spot in the order — has been pressing.
“I feel like if I left him there over time, he’d be Gleyber Torres and we’d see the results,” Boone said. “But I feel like it’s weighed on a little bit here in the last two nights, maybe chasing that result a little bit.”
While Torres hasn’t broken out yet, Boone insisted that the second baseman is “on the verge of really getting it going.”
What tells him that Torres is close?
It’s the quality at-bats, the good swings where he’s just missing pitches and fouling them back.
“He’s lined out a couple times,” Boone explained. “He’s having deep at-bats. I feel like he’s making good swing decisions. He’s just missed — like, ‘Oh!’ — that fly ball to center where I feel like he’s getting a good swing off, maybe just missing it a little bit. I think it’s the quality of the at-bat coupled with what I know of him as a hitter and his ability to bat the ball, I do feel like he’s close to taking off.”
As we’ve seen with Verdugo this week, all it takes is a few good games in a row to wash away an ugly slash line in April. Verdugo was hitting .143 (5-for-35) before his 4-for-6 start to the Marlins series (with two walks), subsequently raising his batting average by nearly .100 points. His OPS is up from .454 to .703.
Torres has also impressed with his ability to work deep into counts thus far. He’s seen more pitches (246) than any other hitter in the American League as of Wednesday morning, averaging 4.32 pitches per plate appearance (26th in baseball).
Boone doesn’t want that approach to change, even as Torres braces for different types of at-bats going forward. He could also be back in the leadoff spot soon too, as much Volpe has the skillset to excel there. The skipper called it a fluid situation.
“Gleyber’s gonna hit,” he said. “I really believe Gleyber is gonna have a big year. Really, wherever Gleyber’s hitting, he’s gonna get rolling and be a big part of this offense.”
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Max Goodman may be reached at mgoodman@njadvancemedia.com.