TAMPA, Fla. — What did Anthony Volpe and Shohei Ohtani have in common this past season?
It wasn’t their success at the plate. Ohtani won the American League MVP after hitting 44 home runs and leading MLB with his .654 slugging percentage (not to mention his 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts). Volpe won a Gold Glove as a rookie shortstop for the New York Yankees, but hit just .209/.283/.383 in an underwhelming debut.
What ties the two together is they both had the same average vertical bat angle (the angle of the bat at contact relative to the ground) of 33.3 degrees in 2023, according to SwingGraphs. That means Volpe’s and Ohtani’s bat paths similarly moved upward through the zone. Ohtani’s bat path works for him. He’s 6-foot-4, 210 pounds and has impeccable control of his bat through all parts of the zone. Volpe is 5-foot-9, 180 pounds and doesn’t possess the same bat control and game power that Ohtani has.
Volpe struggled at the plate in his rookie season. Out of all hitters with at least 500 plate appearances, Volpe’s 84 wRC+ was the ninth-lowest in MLB. He finished in the 19th percentile in strikeout rate and the 33rd percentile in whiff rate. Volpe performed well against fastballs — 17 of his 21 home runs came against heaters — but he was overmatched with breaking and off-speed pitches. Opposing pitchers attacked him at the top of the zone, striking him out in 31.5 percent of his at-bats that ended with a pitch either in the upper third of the strike zone or just outside of the upper third in the chase zone.
The 22-year-old spent his offseason refining his bat path to enhance his ability to make contact against certain pitch types and locations more consistently. He now has a flatter path through the zone instead of the steep swing he had last season.
“That was the biggest emphasis for me this offseason,” Volpe said. “Everyone does things a little differently. When I watch (Aaron) Judge, (Juan) Soto, DJ (LeMahieu), I think what makes the best hitters the best is they give themselves the most room for error and the most flexibility. That’s my goal. I’m not always going to be perfect with my timing and perfect on the pitch. But if I can still be late and shoot the ball to right field or when I’m early and out in front, still have enough space to do something with the pitch, that’s the goal.”
The idea behind a flatter path through the zone is not to eliminate the power he possesses — he’s not turning into a singles hitter — but he should become a more well-rounded hitter if he’s able to increase his contact. Volpe saw an up-close look last season at what increasing contact ideally means for a hitter. Gleyber Torres prioritized contact quantity in 2023, and it resulted in arguably the most well-rounded year of his career while still hitting 25 home runs.
There’s reason for optimism that a flatter attack angle works well for Volpe. In August, Volpe’s average vertical bat angle was 31.3 degrees, according to SwingGraphs. It happened to be the best month of Volpe’s rookie season. He hit seven home runs and posted an .889 OPS in 26 games. In September, Volpe’s bat path was 2.8 degrees steeper at 34.1 degrees. It resulted in the worst month of the season for Volpe. He posted a paltry .482 OPS, and his strikeout rate was over 6 percentage points higher than it was in August.
One of Volpe’s strengths coming up through the Yankees’ minor-league system was getting on base at high rates and not striking out much. Neither of those skills was on display for Volpe in his rookie season. But the Yankees believe a more simplified swing path could lead to a breakout for him in Year 2.
“You hope so,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s 22 years old and it’s about making adjustments at this level. I think for a 21-year-old rookie Yankee shortstop, it was pretty impressive what he was able to do at this point in his first year in major-league baseball. The good ones…
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