Yankees’ Anthony Volpe debuts for Somerset … facing Phillies’ Zack Wheeler!

NEW YORK — Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe smiled his way through a nine-minute interview after his first game since offseason left shoulder surgery, five innings in the field and two at-bats Tuesday night with the Double-A Somerset Patriots.

“I feel amazing,” Volpe told reporters after the Patriots rallied for a 9-6 victory over the Reading Fightin’ Phils in Bridgewater. “It’s a big milestone, a big checkpoint, so it felt good to get back out there.”

Playing was so much fun for Volpe that he didn’t seem to mind being overmatched at the plate in the first game of a rehab assignment that he hopes doesn’t last much more than a week.

The competition was as tough as it gets.

Volpe was 0-for-2 with two strikeouts facing Phillies ace Zack Wheeler, who retired the first 14 of the first 15 batters and struck out nine over 5 2/3 innings in his fourth rehab start.

Batting second behind Yankees No. 1 George Lombard Jr., who moved from short to third base, Volpe whiffed on three pitches in the first inning and struck out swinging again in the fourth after fouling off two 3-2 offerings.

“It was great,” Volpe said. “(Wheeler) looked good. It was a great challenge.”

Wheeler, a righty who is close to returning from September 2025 surgery that treated a blood clot in his throwing shoulder, allowed three sixth-inning runs after Volpe departed from the game.

Rehabbing with the Patriots is a trip back in time for Volpe, a Watchung native who grew up less than 10 miles from TD Bank Ballpark.

As the Yankees’ consensus No. 1 prospect, Volpe played for the Patriots when they won the Eastern League championship in 2022, often with his parents and grandfather in the stands.

Volpe did some reminiscing before getting a couple doses of reality that he’s a little rusty at the plate.

“It’s very nostalgic, but at the same time when I left here I never wanted to come back … in a good way,” Volpe said. “But it’s like a family here, for sure. To come back to that and see other guys in your shoes, it’s cool.”

Volpe will rest on Wednesday, then play Thursday and maybe Friday. He wants to play back-to-back games as soon as possible.

Asked how long his rehab assignment will last, Volpe said, “I’ll fight for … We’ll see, we’ll see. But I feel great after today.”

Volpe’s first game of the year was six months to the day of his arthroscopic surgery that repaired a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder last Oct. 14.

“At the beginning when they were talking about taking it slow when I didn’t feel good, it was easy to listen to them,” he said. “But now that I feel good, it’s hard.”

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