Yankees hope Anthony Volpes hard hits are harbinger of things to come

KANSAS CITY, Mo.— Jim Hendry was one of the scouts who helped make sure Anthony Volpe became a Yankee out of Delbarton HS.The longtime executive watched Volpe in high school and was confident the shortstop not only could perform during the regular season, but when it mattered most, as well.“He just had it,” Hendry, a special assistant to general manager Brian Cashman, said this week at Yankee Stadium.

“I knew the moment wouldn’t get too big for him.”The 23-year-old lifelong Yankee fan is getting his first opportunity in the postseason against the Royals in the ALDS and has shown signs that Hendry’s assessment was correct, as the Yankees split the opening two games heading into Game 3 at Kauffman Stadium.After a second straight inconsistent regular season, Volpe has had mostly good at-bats at the plate in the first two games of the series against Kansas City — and while he made a costly throwing error in Game 1 that helped lead to a pair of runs, he has otherwise been steady at short.Asked what he saw from Volpe as a high schooler that made him confident the first-rounder would succeed in October, Hendry said, “He’s a mature kid, with the way he carried himself and the way he played.”The Yankees saw enough from Volpe to put him at shortstop in The Bronx at the beginning of 2023 and his bat has not produced as much as many had expected.He sacrificed a bit of power this season in exchange for more contact, but there remained extended stretches of little of either.So far against Kansas City, Volpe has hit several balls hard, including a 100-mph opposite-field shot to the warning track in right at the Stadium and another well-struck ball to right field in his second at-bat of Game 1.Volpe followed that with a bases-loaded walk.He got his first hit of the series in the second inning on Monday, a hard-hit single to left, followed by another walk and then a smash to shortstop.He’s hit three balls over 100 mph in the two games, and hit two over 105 o...