Why Anthony Volpe’s Opening Day nod feels like New York’s most significant baseball debut in years

Even if Anthony Volpe’s Yankees debut didn’t coincide with an Opening Day, considerable hype still would surround it.

That will happen to any rookie on the Yankees or the Mets or another team with the label of high draft pick or minor league standout attached to his name.

Volpe — the No. 30 overall pick in 2019, with a combined .820 OPS across three minor league seasons — is both.

But this is the Yankees. This is their shortstop, the infield’s most important position and the one they’ve tried, and mostly failed, to fill long-term since Derek Jeter retired.

This is Opening Day, when teams haven’t yet deflated the hopes of their fans or tainted their outlooks on the next seven months.

It’s not a Game 79, in the nightcap of a doubleheader, amid injuries and a losing streak. It’s not a Game 110, on a Sunday afternoon, amid pouring rain with a half-empty stadium.

Instead, Volpe and his spring training exploits have encountered the perfect situation to make this — arguably — one of the most anticipated baseball debuts in The Bronx or Queens in decades.

There hasn’t been a shortage of memorable debuts for Yankees or Mets rookies in the past 20 years, either.

David Wright felt like he was “floating on cloud nine” on July 21, 2004.

Matt Harvey’s 11-strikeout gem was “everything I could have imagined” on July 26, 2012, and he even added two hits at the plate.

Jacob deGrom’s MLB premiere in May 2014 — which happened during a Subway Series — gave the now-Rangers ace a “feeling I’ll probably never have again.”

The thing about in-season debuts is they’re often overshadowed by more pressing storylines, or they’re just flat-out desperation moves trying to spark an offense or plug a pitching staff vacancy.

There’s often nothing overly romantic about them, just the latest churn and line in the transaction log with a bit of fanfare and a bit of unknown attached.

That happened with Jose Reyes in 2004, when he was pegged as a temporary solution while Rey Sanchez recovered from a thumb injury — and then Sanchez was traded in July, six weeks after Reyes’ debut.

Gary Sanchez also made a brief cameo in the 2015 postseason as a pinch-hitter, months before his stretch of 11 homers in 15 games the following August.

In other instances, those prospects’ firsts are secondary storylines. Zack Wheeler debuted as a 23-year-old in the second game of a doubleheader against the Braves, throwing six shutout innings and striking out seven … but serving as the encore to Matt Harvey’s near-no-hitter.

“Now Zack is here with all the publicity,” Mets manager Terry Collins said that day. “He’s the guy here with all the attention, so to Zack, [Harvey] might have said, ‘I’m still the guy here.’ ’’

It wasn’t about Wheeler. It was still about Harvey, then a phenom at the peak of his Dark Knight powers.

Even when Aaron Judge debuted in the Bronx in 2016 — during an August game, replacing an injured Brett Gardner — the home-run surge from Sanchez served as the primary attraction.

Pete Alonso debuted on Opening Day for the Mets in 2019, and top prospects such as Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty have cracked the lineup in other anticipated scenarios.

But there’s nothing to overshadow Volpe’s moment.

He’s not in this position as the starting shortstop of MLB’s most successful franchise because of an injury.

Maybe general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone hope he can provide a spark, but there’s more of a what-could-he-be sense of wonder instead of a we-need-this-to-work desperation.

There was a competition entering spring training. It started with three candidates. And then Volpe, in an exchange with Boone and Cashman, was told he emerged as the last one standing.

So he’ll get the honor of being in the first lineup introduced by the Yankee Stadium public address announcer for the 2023 season.

Maybe Judge will get louder cheers and a longer standing ovation, but the excitement engulfing the 21-year-old from Watchung, N.J. might just outdo Judge’s — the Yankees’ first captain since The Captain, the same legendary shortstop that Volpe is simultaneously tasked with replacing.

So if it seems like Volpe’s debut might matter more than most, that’s correct.

Opening Day is Volpe Day.

Today’s back page

Read more baseball previews before Opening Day:

⚾ Mets season preview: Inside the lineup, rotation and World Series hopes

⚾ Yankees season preview: The keys to making a leap when it matters

⚾ The complex past and high-stakes Mets future of Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer

⚾ Aaron Judge has big shoes to fill as past Yankees captains offer advice

⚾ VACCARO: The pressure’s on Yankees and Mets to deliver on World Series goal

⚾ SHERMAN: Why MLB is confident rule changes will be worth the looming headaches

Big questions around baseball

It’s also Opening Day for the Mets, who face the Marlins in Miami at 4:10 p.m. ET. Steve Cohen’s offseason of spending that attracted attention from everyone — including MLB commissioner Rob Manfred — will face its first test, but a peak at the solution to their most pressing question might not come until later in the game.

They likely lost closer Edwin Diaz for the season due to a torn patellar tendon sustained in a World Baseball Classic celebration. Will a combination of Adam Ottavino and David Robertson emerge as their best option to complete games?

Here are five other storylines around the league that are top of mind on Opening Day:

• The Phillies are trying to run it back — with everybody, including manager Rob Thomson — after their unexpected run to the World Series and added Trea Turner, but they’re missing Bryce Harper (for now) and Rhys Hoskins (for good). Is that enough to prevent a deep team from contending in the deep NL East?

• The Red Sox are really using Corey Kluber as their Opening Day starter? Their rotation certainly looks different from their World Series-contending years, and could bury them in the AL East, especially if the Orioles can build on their late-season surge, the Rays remain consistent and the Yankees and Blue Jays perform as expected.

• The Rays might have a Tyler Glasnow problem, especially if their ace still can’t stay healthy after returning from an oblique injury. He already underwent Tommy John surgery in August 2021 and missed most of the 2022 season before signing a contract extension last summer. But Glasnow at full strength allows the Rays to have one of the best pairs of starting pitchers at the top of their rotation, alongside Shane McClanahan.

• Will this be the changing of the guard in the NL West, finally? The Padres had an offseason filled with spending that rivaled Cohen and the Mets. The Dodgers, however, stayed relatively stagnant outside of signing J.D. Martinez, especially in the shortstop market after losing Turner.

• Can the Angels finally make the playoffs, and advance, this year with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani? Two of MLB’s superstars define their lineup, but the organization — now under the guidance of former Yankees third-base coach Phil Nevin as its full-time manager — hasn’t made the postseason since 2015. As Ohtani’s free agency looms, this year might be the Angels’ best, and last, chance with its current group.

Knicks beat Heat, but did they get burned?

“This should’ve been a night to celebrate what effectively was the clinching of a playoff spot,” The Post’s Ian O’Connor wrote in his column after the Knicks delivered a crucial 101-92 win over the rival Heat. “This should’ve been a night to celebrate the fact that the Knicks had put a chokehold on fifth place in the Eastern Conference, a seed that would likely keep them clear of Philly in the first round and set them up for an ultra-winnable series with Cleveland.”

But instead, after Julius Randle exited the game in the second quarter due to a sprained left ankle, it was something else: a night of mixed emotions, a night of concern, a night of alarm.

Here’s a look at the key figures from Wednesday night’s momentous late-season win:

Randle: Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said Randle will undergo further evaluation on the ankle Thursday, and the looming question is whether Randle will be available for the playoffs (the first round begins April 15) and if he is, whether he will be a compromised version of the player who has put up 25 points, 10 rebounds and four assists per game this season.

The injury happened with 2:38 left in the second quarter, when Randle — playing in his 77th of the Knicks’ 77 games this season — landed on Bam Adebayo’s foot and badly rolled his ankle.

He stayed down for several seconds in pain, and tried to walk it off before taking two free throws. MSG Networks cameras showed Randle in some agony as he limped off the court to the locker room.

Jalen Brunson: The Knicks point guard returned to the lineup after missing the past two games due to a sprained right hand. He put up 12 points and three assists in 30 minutes.

Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes, RJ Barrett, Josh Hart and Isaiah Hartenstein: That’s the crunch-time five (no Randle, no Brunson) that Thibodeau played for the entire fourth quarter as the Knicks turned a tie game into a nine-point win. Quickley led the Knicks with 24 points, and Grimes added 23, including five 3-pointers.

— Jonathan Lehman

A pivotal Metropolitan Division clash

It doesn’t take more than a quick glance at the Metropolitan Division standings to grasp the magnitude of Thursday’s game between the Rangers and Devils.

The Devils sit in second place with 100 points. The Rangers, carried by a 9-1-1 stretch, enter with 98 after Tuesday’s 6-2 victory against the Blue Jackets. The two teams, per Hockey Reference, have met 266 times in their history — with the Blueshirts and their 130 wins leading the series — and 34 of those meetings were scattered across six postseason series.

If the Rangers and Devils meet in the first round of the 2023 playoffs, it would mark the first postseason games between the rivals since 2012, when New Jersey eliminated the Rangers in six games in the Eastern Conference final.

But before that, the next meeting has the potential to directly shape their 2023 postseason paths.

According to FiveThirtyEight’s projections, the Rangers have a better chance of winning the Stanley Cup (7% compared to 1%) and making the finals (14% compared to 3%) than the Devils.

It’s an interesting flip based on their placement in the standings, and their early trajectories, but New Jersey cooled after a stretch of 21 wins in 24 games to start the season — when head coach Lindy Ruff went from a fireable candidate to everybody’s favorite.

“Fire Lindy” chants morphed into “Sorry Lindy.” They’ve lost six times in their last eight games, though.

It took a bit longer for the Rangers to click, but their new pieces — Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane — sparked an offense that has scored four or more goals in seven of the past 11 games.

And Filip Chytil, the season’s Breakout Kid in the words of The Post’s Larry Brooks, agreed Wednesday to a four-year contract extension worth an annual cap hit of $4.4375 million.