Yahoo Finance Opening Day at Yankee Stadium is perfect stage for Anthony Volpe's debut, Aaron Judge's return
It is an Opening Day of new beginnings at Yankee Stadium. Thursday afternoon, however, will bring renewal not just because of the prized rookie who’s never graced a big league field, but also the biggest superstar in pinstripes.
Batting ninth, and playing shortstop: Anthony Volpe, the 21-year-old Jersey kid who wowed the Yankees in winning the team’s most important job in spring training, and now gets a chance to test his well-chronicled cool in front of a fan base hoping he’s the missing piece to a championship club.
Batting second, and playing center field: Aaron Judge, the 30-year-old reigning American League Most Valuable Player who will be celebrated for his 2022 season yet also be reminded what could have been had he not agreed to a nine-year, $360 million contract to return.
Thursday’s opponent: The San Francisco Giants, the club Judge rooted for as a child and tried wooing him in free agency last winter, only for Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner to guarantee Judge the largest salary ever for a position player along with a new title: Team captain.
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Like Derek Jeter before him, Judge is not expected to have a navy “C” affixed to his jersey, just the expectations that come with being the club’s most visible and revered figure. And in his first game of this new era, Judge will have at least one ancillary assignment: Helping Volpe through what could be a dizzying afternoon, from the Bleacher Creature shoutouts all the way through his first nine innings in the bigs.
“To have a chance to have his first Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, in front of family and friends, man, what an opportunity,” says Judge of Volpe. “I’m excited for him. He’s gonna be nervous, there’s gonna be jitters, but what I saw in camp, that stuff doesn’t faze him.
“Just go out and have some fun. And make sure you have a roll call for the Bleacher Creatures. I gotta talk to him about that - but he probably knows.”
There’s a couple reasons for that.
First, Volpe grew up a Yankee fan in Watchung, New Jersey, about an hour from Yankee Stadium. He’s heard both the upbeat rendition of "New York, New York" (after Yankee wins) and the more reserved Sinatra (after losses). And knows that the right field denizens shout out each member of the starting lineup as the game begins, until each publicly acknowledges the crowd.
Yet Volpe thoroughly impressed the Yankees throughout camp, with what ace Gerrit Cole called “elite” preparation along with his burgeoning talent. Volpe leaves little to chance, be it how he may react to the crowd to a walk-up song he’d chosen but not yet revealed less than 48 hours before game time.
Then, there’s the matter of ticket distribution for a player yet to receive his first major league paycheck.
“I’m going to be losing money on this game, for sure,” Volpe said, not at all upset about the prospect.
See, he’ll be surrounded by likely dozens of family and friends, befitting a kid who grew up wearing No. 7 for Mickey Mantle, yet still workshopping his permanent number since all those single-digit Yankee numbers are long retired.
That includes the No. 2 for shortstop Derek Jeter, whose first opening day in 1996 preceded a World Series title and a Hall of Fame career.
Nobody is yet charting such a course for Volpe. But knowing he was in a three-way derby with fellow prospect Oswald Peraza and incumbent Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Yankee veterans watched their shortstop candidate closely this spring. And if there’s any manner in which Volpe might be Jeterian, it is the strong base from which he emerged.
Just sub in Somerset and Morris counties in New Jersey for Kalamazoo, Michigan.
“It goes back to the people he surrounds himself with,” says Cole. “Getting a chance to see his mom and dad, his friends’ group, some of the prospects he’s played with – they’ve got nothing but good things to say about him.
“Seeing the support he has around him and that tight-knit group, that’s what you need to handle adversity through a long season, especially in New York.”
The Yankees should be in a pitched battle to defend their AL East title, as wild card entrants Toronto and Tampa Bay aim to level up while second-division clubs in Baltimore and Boston expect to win, too. New York will be without expected rotation stalwarts Carlos Rodon and Luis Severino to start the season, along with outfielder Harrison Bader.
But they will have Judge, whose leverage didn’t suffer when a video of him arriving in San Francisco as the hot stove season heated up was widely distributed. The Giants were first to offer him $360 million, according to multiple reports.
The Yankees matched it, preventing Judge from an instant return home with a new club, a prospect he immediately grasped when he first perused the 2023 schedule way back in August.
“I don’t know who at MLB was (responsible). I saw it during the middle of the year last year and I was like, ‘Somebody at MLB is messing with me,’” he says.
Cole could not bring himself to believe one of his first pitches of 2023 would be to Judge, rather than having the 6-7 slugger behind him in the outfield.
“I almost got close to maybe thinking that could happen,” he said, “but pulled myself back off the edge.”
There are no what-ifs with Volpe, just pure anticipation. Yankees manager Aaron Boone says Volpe has “prepared, in a way, his entire life to be ready for this,” and is as equipped as any player to handle it. They relish seeing his physical skills on display while knowing that his oft-discussed “makeup” will get plenty of tests with the many pitfalls a 162-game season brings.
It’s come at him quickly; Volpe is still returning congratulatory messages since his promotion was announced Sunday. Judge says the kid can slow it down because he seems 27, not 21.
And has a plan to catch it all on his mental highlight reel, while hopefully providing some tangible ones.
“I don’t want to think too much about it,” he says, “or how I would want it to go.
“I just want to be in the moment and enjoy every second.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Yankees' Opening Day is perfect stage for Anthony Volpe, Aaron Judge
