Yankees Mailbag: Chisholm’s future, Volpe’s progression, and RotY rewards

Good afternoon everyone, it's time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

The idiot that said, "Harper is coming" asks: Any thoughts on a Jazz Chisholm extension? The kid looks to be right at home here. I'm confident they'll just take advantage of his two remaining cheap years of arbitration remaining since he's making less than $1M this season, but they might have a perfect opportunity to add him long term for cheap. This might be the chance to pull a Tampa or Atlanta type extension for once.

I agree that an extension is unlikely, as his arbitration will likely remain cheap and the team is in a transitive state with their infield currently. There are interesting pieces that need to prove themselves a bit more before you can pencil them in for the foreseeable future, and Chisholm certainly qualifies as one of them. His bat heating up to this extent has been an incredible boon in balancing the lineup, but how legitimate has his rise been and can he stick it at the hot corner? Without answers to either of those questions, the team will probably feel that there's too much risk to move forward — and to be fair, their history shows that perhaps caution should be warranted.

The Yankees just got out of the Luis Severino deal this season, and while he's been great for the Mets now, there's no question that his Yankees tenure unfortunately went underwater the moment he put pen to paper. They're also still paying out Aaron Hicks' deal with him a year removed from the team, and he's also been bounced from his next two landing points as well. They just haven't had any luck in being pre-emptive here, and it's hard to compare with Atlanta getting routine extensions that're the envy of the whole league. You could also argue that their hesitance has cost them as well, since Aaron Judge could've been signed for a lot less than the $360 million he ultimately got from the free market, but let he who wasn't at least a little worried about his long-term future prior to his absurd 2022 season throw the first stone. Either way you look at it, extensions in this day and age this close to free agency are a mixed bag, so I wouldn't fault the team for playing it safe while they focus on financing Juan Soto's deal this offseason and finding any other upgrades to the lineup.

thor14 asks: Should Yankees make SS an open competition next year? Despite winning a GG Volpe does not seem to be the answer.

They won't, and I don't think they should yet, but Volpe's progression (or lack thereof) in year two has been frustrating to watch. His offseason adjustments lined him up to be more of a contact hitter and the initial success was there, but MLB is a game of adjustments and the league adjusted well in how they've attacked him. Now he's shown little ability to lift a home run while also not working walks, and the contact has been too marginal to justify these sacrifices. He's made small adjustments towards where in the zone pitchers are attacking him, but the general mindset has still been to play towards this contact approach that hasn't produced despite all of the effort that Volpe puts in.

So, if Volpe's first and second years were both flawed offensively but on different sides of the spectrum, how does he find the middle ground and become the complete hitter that the coaching staff thought he was approaching? Is he just the opposite of what he was in the minors, a glove-first shortstop with fading dreams of tapping into that offensive power? To be clear, his defense has been so much better than it originally was scouted as that even if this is his niche going forward, he's worth keeping on the team — it's that valuable. It just can't be flanked with several other nothing bats while the 2025 lineup hopes that the top three get the job done.

Bruce P. asks: If Austin Wells wins ROY, do the Yankees get the draft pick reward that comes with that?