Yankees' Aaron Boone praises Anthony Volpe following early-season struggles

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone offered praise for rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe after Volpe turned things around following early-season struggles.

"It's been fun to watch him make adjustments on the fly, which you gotta do," Boone said about Volpe before Wednesday's home game against the Baltimore Orioles, per Ben Krimmel of SNY. "To be a successful major leaguer it's a lot about making adjustments. This league's very good at attacking things, attacking weaknesses, finding holes. The really good ones are able to make adjustments and I think he's done a great job here these last few weeks of making some really good adjustments."

Volpe began June 13 slashing .186/.260/.345/.605 with nine home runs and 26 RBI across 67 contests. As Krimmel noted, the 22-year-old has since slashed .355/.420/.565/.985 heading into Wednesday night. Over his last 19 games, Volpe tallied 22 total hits, five doubles, a triple, two homers and seven walks. 

"Of course, we're confident in his talent and his ability to play this game at a really high level, and think he's gonna have a long career at it," Boone added about Volpe. "But we also felt like he was very much equipped to deal with whatever came down the [pike], whether it was immediate success, whether it's inevitable bumps in the road or adversities, he's been the same consistent guy throughout."

Any chatter about the Yankees possibly demoting Volpe to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders has disappeared as the Bronx Bombers continue to experience life without slugger Aaron Judge. New York went 13-13 across the first 26 games since Judge was sidelined with a torn ligament in his big right toe following a win on June 3, and there remains no timeline for when he could return. 

Ahead of Wednesday's action, the Yankees trailed the first-place Tampa Bay Rays by eight games in the American League East standings but also held a wild-card playoff spot at that time.