Grading Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees front office at midseason
By Bill Felber
Farm system
The farm system news in the Bronx has been all about shortstop Anthony Volpe. Promoted at season’s start, Volpe hasn’t shown the offensive punch his fans hoped for. He’s batting .208 and, despite 10 home runs, his .658 OPS says more work needs to be done in that area.
Defensively, however, Volpe has been perfectly fine. He’s compiled 6 Defensive Runs Saved and, last time I checked, shortstop was a defense-first position. The defense is a large part of the reason why despite that low batting average Volpe still rates a +0.8 WAA. It may not look like it to the casual observer, but Volpe has made it.
The less heralded rookie find has been reliever Ron Marinaccio. In 33 bullpen appearances covering 35 innings, he’s sitting at a 3.06 ERA and a +0.2 WAA.
Cashman has had some success developing system products into stars. Judge was a system product, as in part was Gleyber Torres. On the current Yankee roster, Michael King, Jonathan Loaisiga, Domingo German, Luis Severino and, of course Judge and Torres, all came up through that system.
That plus his defensive stability suggests that given time Volpe will mature into a central piece of the Yankee scheme, if not an offensive powerhouse.