Would the Atlanta Braves Be Interested in Anthony Volpe?

The New York Yankees have grown frustrated with their young shortstop, benching him for poor play on both sides of the ball

It is abundantly clear that if the Atlanta Braves want to upgrade the shortstop position, it will need to be via trade. This year’s free agent class at the most important infield position consists of flawed Toronto Blue Jays star Bo Bichette and virtually nothing else.

Meanwhile, in the Bronx, former Gold Glove shortstop Anthony Volpe, just 24, got his second straight day off in the midst of a nightmare season. Despite manager Aaron Boone’s insistence that Volpe “is our shortstop” and this is nothing more than a two-day mental reset, let’s operate on the assumption that the Yankees want to turn the position over to either trade deadline acquisition Jose Caballero (who got both the starts during Volpe’s "‘reset”) or top prospect George Lombard Jr.

What would a Braves deal look like, and could Atlanta fix what ails Volpe? Let’s talk about it.

It’s been bad in the Bronx

After winning the starting shortstop position over fellow prospect Oswald Peraza (since traded to the Los Angeles Angels) prior to the 2023 season, Volpe has had high expectations placed on his shoulders. After all, “Yankees shortstop” is right up there with “Cowboys quarterback” and “Lakers center” as some of the most iconic positions in American sports.

Volpe’s struggled to meet the lofty expectations left by such baseball greats as Derek Jeter, Phil Rizzuto, Frank Crosetti, and Bucky Dent.

His first two seasons were good enough, though. That 2023 season saw Volpe hit 21 homers and win Gold Glove honors in the American League, while 2024 saw him improve on his anemic .209 average with a .243 mark and just barely get under the ‘one strikeout a game’ mark.

Everything’s collapsed in 2025. Volpe is not only barely hitting his weight (.208 average, 197 listed weight) but has also been a net negative with the glove.

The New Jersey product is batting just .208/.274/.400 and can’t fall back on his previously stellar defense to add value to the club - he’s currently third from the bottom for all shortstops with -5 Fielding Run Value and holds a -7 Outs Above Average.¹

What’s gone wrong with Volpe in 2025?

Short answer: What hasn’t gone wrong?

Long answer: Volpe’s struggling in every sense of the word.

Offensively, he’s lost the ability to hit just about every single pitch type and sub-type, grading negatively against two of the three pitch types (he’s okay against fastballs) and having a negative rating against each individual pitch except for cutters² (+3 Run Value) and sweepers (+1 Run Value).

Defensively, he’s regressed to one of the worst defenders at the position. While his arm’s never been great - he famously went to the Wake Forest Pitching Lab as a prospect to improve his throwing ability in a successful attempt to stick at short - it’s the range that’s really cratered. Volpe went from a +11 Range factor in 2024 to a -5 this year, despite his speed remaining relatively static (28.6 ft/sec last year, 28.4 ft/sec this year).

Some of this regression is a mirage

Here’s the odd thing about Anthony Volpe’s offense: The expected statistics are surprisingly static every single year, although his actual numbers have swung widely.

Year: BA (xBA) and SLG (xSLG)
2023: .209 (.233) and .383 (.396)
2024: .243 (.238) and .364 (.332)
2025: .208 (.236) and .400 (.420)

As you can see, his batting average has swung by about 35 points in every season, despite the expected always being within five points of the previous season’s number.

For the slugging, he was awful in 2024 but rebounded this season, thanks to a career-high 72.6 mph bat speed (the first time it’s been above-average) and an improvement in both optimal contact rate (called “squared-up” rate on statcast) and “blasts” (a batted ball combining a fast swings that is squared up).

He’s never been overly susceptible to chase, with this year’s 23.7% rate being a 77th percentile mark after two seasons of being roughly league average at the mark.

The whiffs, however, have crept back in there. Volpe’s increase in swing speed has resulted in his whiff rate climbing from 22.6% last year (slightly better-than-average) to 24.6% (slightly worse-than-average), with his strikeout rate increasing correspondingly.

Seeing the expected numbers being roughly the same every single year makes me think that Volpe’s getting some bad luck from the random variance that comes about in this sport. While there are things to work on offensively, like his deteriorating performance against offspeed pitches, this feels like a potential 20/20 bat at shortstop, albeit one with a slightly below-average batting average.

The defense is a real question

Let’s throw out the 2023 Gold Glove award - Volpe was tied for the 21st-best shortstop by Outs Above Average that year, but it’s human beings (the 30 MLB managers and six of their coaches) that vote instead of it being measured by any sort of advanced statistics.

Volpe’s best defensive season was actually 2024, one where he was tied for 6th with +8 Fielding Run Value, the 2nd-best mark in the American League behind only Kansas City Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. Volpe’s grade came mostly on the strength of his range (+11 FRV), slightly negated by some issues with converting double plays.

But this season, his -5 is entirely the result of that very same range - he actually grades out exactly zero on both contributions via the arm and turning double plays, meaning he’s making the expected plays but not always the spectacular ones.

And quite frankly, I’m not sure why. His defensive positioning is the exact same as last year - 150 feet deep and at a -12 angle from third base. His arm strength, while still below average, is slightly better than last season. His defenders around him are better, mostly because of the change from Gleyber Torres at second base (-7 FRV in 2024) to Jazz Chisholm (+2 FRV this year).

And yet, he’s doing worse. I don’t know why, but I have a theory.

Is this mental?

As I mentioned earlier, playing shortstop for the New York Yankees is a big deal. And at this point, I don’t know what else to attribute Volpe’s struggles to other than “New York’s a terrible place to be going through an extended slump because of the intensity and volume of the NY sports media.”

Is this reductive and a bit amorphous? Sure. Is there any other logical explanation? Not really. He’s in the third month of a slump, hitting just .171 with a .203 on-base since July 1st, and pressing to try and get out of it, focusing too much on fixing his offense and letting these defensive issues compound. Volpe’s seventeen errors are tied for his career-high and just two behind Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz for the most in baseball.

What else could it be, other than the mental pressure and weight of an extended slump in a tough media environment?

Would a trade be helpful? It’s possible. But would New York make that trade, and what would it cost for Atlanta to acquire the 24-year-old?

This won’t be cheap

There are two different ways Atlanta could go about making this deal: Either trade a major leaguer in something close to a one-for-one, or package prospects to the Yankees for Volpe.

Let’s look at each option.

Option 1: Send a major leaguer

There’s not a lot of overlap between Atlanta’s tradeable pieces and New York’s needs.

New York’s gotten exactly 0.0 bWAR from left field, mostly a combination of former top prospect Jasson Dominguez and veteran Cody Bellinger. And of those two, Bellinger could join starting centerfielder Trent Grisham in free agency if he chooses to decline his $25M player option for 2026.

But unless Bellinger wants a multi-year deal, he’s likely to remain for one more season, so Jurickson Profar’s probably not as appealing as we’d hope he would be in a trade.

The Yankees have rookies Austin Wells and Ben Rice behind the plate, with Rice covering first base on a platoon basis when he’s not needed to spell Wells. While this duo hasn’t performed from a WAR perspective, combining with third catcher J.C. Escarra for a league-worst -1.7 WAR, both Rice and Wells are young and cost-controlled for the next half-decade. Sean Murphy might have a bit of appeal there, but it does require either optioning someone down to AAA or a permanent move to first base for Rice.

One deal that could potentially work is Ozzie Albies. New York’s struggled at both second and third base, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. being more than capable but the Yanks struggling to find a running mate for him at the other bag. Ryan McMahon’s currently getting the bulk of those third base starts, with Amed Rosario spelling him once a week or so, but the fit here doesn’t make a ton of sense. McMahon has two years and $32M left on his deal, while Chisholm is much better at second base (+7 OAA) than third base (-3 OAA), so moving him to accommodate Albies isn’t the best move from a defensive perspective.

There is a workable solution here, though, for New York: Sending Jazz back to centerfield to replace Grisham, who likely departs in free agency after hitting 25 homers with a career-high 126 OPS+. This would allow New York to deploy Ozzie at second, McMahon at third, and Caballero manning shortstop for as long as it takes top prospect George Lombard Jr. to be ready to debut. Oswaldo Cabrera, who was impressing as the starting third baseman until a fractured ankle ended his season, would become a high-end utility piece who has experience playing almost everywhere on the diamond.

Option 2: A prospect package

This one’s simple to understand - grab a couple of prospects and send them to New York for Volpe. There are so many options that it’s not worth getting into specific packages, as that depends on how motivated New York is to make a deal (and I can’t imagine that’s very motivated, based on Boone’s comments).

But…here’s the issue with offering the Yankees a prospect package that would likely be focused on pitching.

The Yankees are one of the premier pitching development organizations in all of baseball, likely even surpassing Atlanta at this point.

So it’s going to hurt.

Several of Atlanta’s trades for major leaguers haven’t actually been that costly in terms of the arms that the Braves gave up³. Between acquiring Matt Olson and Sean Murphy, Atlanta sent pitchers Ryan Cusick, Joey Estes, Royber Salinas, Kyle Muller, and Freddy Tarnock back to the Athletics (and reliever Justin Yeager to Milwaukee).

But New York’s different. While they’re not in your division, so you won’t see them as often, it’s likely that the Yankees are able to get that player to the majors and maybe even as a better version of who they currently are.

That trade-off is worth it if Volpe rebounds/develops into a franchise shortstop, putting up 20/20 seasons with above-average defense.

But if he can’t figure it out and is a bust, does that change your thinking about the trade? It shouldn’t, honestly, but that’s how things work.

Is taking on that risk worth giving up several arms? Let’s assume the package is Owen Murphy, Drue Hackenberg, and a backend third piece like Carter Holton or Cade Kuehler. Is that a deal you’re willing to make?

If Atlanta wants a meaningful upgrade at shortstop, they might not have any other option. And that’s even if the Yankees want to make a move.

1. Last on both of those metrics, by the way? Bo Bichette at -9 FRV/-11 OAA. Dude’s a future second baseman, I’m telling you.

2. Yes, as a cutter propagandist, I’m choosing to take that personally.

3. The catchers, though? Ouch.