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Former New York Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent believes Anthony Volpe can still be a great player despite his struggles. Volpe, a top prospect, had high expectations heading into the season. Although he has yet to find his footing at the big league level, the Yankees are still confident in their young shortstop. Dent revealed how he believes Volpe can turn things around, per Steve Serby of the New York Post.
“His swing will come,” Dent said. “I’d like to see him hit more line drives. … I don’t know what they’re trying to do with him … but he’s gonna get a chance to be a really, really good player. He runs well, he runs the bases well. He’s got all the ability.”
Hitting line drives is baseball 101. Sometimes, all a player needs to do is simplify his approach at the plate. In today's current era of baseball, extra emphasis is placed on analytics, launch angle, etc. However, perhaps Dent's advice to the Yankees young shortstop will help him get it going in New York.
Volpe is currently slashing just .186/.260/.345 with a .605 OPS and nine home runs. As far as line drives go, Volpe is hitting line drives 22 percent of the time. Meanwhile, he's hitting ground balls 40.7 percent and fly balls 31.3 percent of the time, per Baseball Reference.
Volpe has still enjoyed some impressive moments for the Yankees during the '23 campaign. Many young future stars go through slumps before figuring out big league pitching. Volpe should pay attention to what Dent has to say though. His advice could give Volpe a refreshed perspective moving forward.
