Could Yankees top prospect start the season in Somerset?

Somerset Patriots, Baseball, Professional

January 24, 2022

The Somerset Patriots are coming off a great season where they finished first in their division with a 72-47 record. Late in the season their starting shortstop Oswald Peraza was promoted to Triple-A which I believe is where he will begin the 2022 season. The Patriots will need one of their current shortstops to step up, whether it be Jesus Bastidas or Christian Perez. But we could see the top prospect shortstop Anthony Volpe get promoted before the season.

Volpe is a New Jersey native who was drafted in the first round of the 2019 MLB Draft. He is ranked the 15th best prospect in baseball and the Yankees top prospect overall. So that is exciting for Yankee fans. To begin his young career he started with the Yankees minor league affiliate the Palaski Yankees. That season in 2019 he played 34 games. Batting only .215, two home runs, and 11 RBI. Which wasn't a great start to his career but that sure did change. Due to Covid, there wasn't a 2020 minor league season so Volpe didn't play any games. But Volpe seemed to take advantage of that year because it led to a dominant 2021 campaign.

Yankees Prospect Stood Out in Both A Levels

He played in both Single-A and High-A. During his stint in Single-A where he played 54 games Volpe batted .302, 12 home runs, 49 RBI. He also managed to score 56 times and had an OBP of .455 in 199 plate appearances. His spectacular performances led to his call up to High-A where he would then spend the remainder of the 2021 season. In High-A Volpe batted .286, 15 home runs, and 37 RBI. Once again he was very good at getting on base with an OBP of .391 and scored 57 times.

It makes a lot of sense for his promotion to Double-A considering the season he had last year. Hopefully, he will be able to put up numbers like that and who knows maybe we could see him get promoted to Triple-A or even the MLB before the end of the season. But for now, Volpe will try to keep improving and hopefully have a good 2022 season.