Anthony Volpe wins competition to be Yankees’ Opening Day shortstop

TAMPA — The Yankees will have a 21-year-old New Jersey product starting at shortstop on Opening Day.

Anthony Volpe has won the shortstop battle the Yankees held during spring training, consistently showing off his all-around game and the high potential that team officials had been raving about since drafting him in the first round in 2019.

Volpe entered camp seemingly with the longest odds to win the job, with Isiah Kiner-Falefa the incumbent and Oswald Peraza ahead in his development path after making a one-month cameo at the end of last season.

Unlike Kiner-Falefa and Peraza, Volpe was not on the 40-man roster and had only played 22 games at Triple-A, a knock because the Yankees typically like their prospects to conquer each level of the minor leagues before moving up.

But Volpe forced his way onto the Opening Day roster with a stellar camp that caught the attention of veteran teammates and coaches early on.

The Delbarton grad never let his foot off the gas pedal, making it just about impossible for the Yankees not to carry him on the roster immediately out of camp.

Yankees captain Aaron Judge all but foreshadowed the move earlier this spring when asked about Volpe’s lack of Triple-A experience, saying the best players should be up with the Yankees regardless of age.

Since then, Volpe has only continued to make a loud case for the job.

“He just shows up ready to work,” Judge said Saturday after Volpe came up a home run short of the cycle. “He’s prepared. Very rarely do you see that at such a young age. There’s usually some — a little immature, a little unprepared or the moment’s too big. But he seems ready to go every single game I’ve played behind him.”

Volpe will be the first rookie in the Yankees’ Opening Day lineup since Judge in 2017.

He will also be the youngest Yankee to start on Opening Day since a 21-year-old Derek Jeter did so in 1996, according to MLB.com.

Volpe had a scheduled day off on Sunday, but through 17 Grapefruit League games, he was batting .314 with a 1.064 OPS and five steals.

The addition of Volpe to the Yankees lineup could inject some needed athleticism, especially in the first season in which the bases will be bigger and pickoffs will be limited.

Last season, when those rules were already in place in the minor leagues, Volpe stole 50 bases in 132 games between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

While scouts are split on whether Volpe’s long-term future is at shortstop or second base, there is little doubt about his offense, baseball IQ or how he carries himself on and off the field.

“He just comes to beat your ass,” a National League scout who has seen Volpe often in the minor leagues said recently. “He’s just that guy who’s in the middle of anything good that happens almost every day — offensively, defensively, baserunning.”