Yankees' Anthony Volpe Responds to Demotion Amid Horrible 2026 Debut

(USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)

It was a rather ugly day for the New York Yankees on Wednesday, losers of a three-game set against the Baltimore Orioles. It's unfortunate that the Yankees haven't been able to do what's needed on both sides of the baseball over the past two series, now losing five of their last six.

On top of that, the Yankees just aren't healthy, and that could be a major reason as to why this team is playing as poorly as it is.

The Yankees had to call up Anthony Volpe due to Jose Caballero dealing with an injury, and the young shortstop didn't do anything that anybody was hoping for, going 0-for-3 on Wednesday and making another error on a routine play.

Before that, though, Volpe was optioned to Triple-A.

If it weren't for this injury to Caballero, there would be no chance that he'd be on the roster at the moment. Speaking to reporters about the Yankees' decision to go in that direction, it sounds like he couldn't do anything else but take it on the chin and try to work his way back up to the highest level.

"I just had to take it," Volpe said, per USA Today, "and go to work, and work to get back here. I didn’t know how long or how short. But just had to get to work.

"What’s happened has happened. I put in a lot of work to feel this good and come back and just go and help this team. I’ve been able to process and do everything and it’s just back to work. They have a really good club so it feels really good to be back… It sucked," he said. "I like to think I worked really hard so I don’t ever put myself in that position again. But I got back here and I’m excited to go."

Volpe is a really tough guy to evaluate in a sense. To me, I think he's better than he's played over the past year and a half, but he might not be as good as some of his highs. At this point, it's only fair to suggest that he's really just an average big leaguer, at best.