Jayne Kamin-Oncea | USA TODAY Sports

New York Yankees shortstop prospect Anthony Volpe hit yet another home run in Friday’s spring training game against the Twins.

Statcast measured Volpe’s blast at 426 feet with a 104.4 mph exit velocity. How is the kid not going to be the starting shortstop on Opening Day? It looks — and sounds — like he will be.

From The Athletic this morning:

And with about a week until Opening Day, Volpe has had some high-level voices inside the organization supporting his candidacy, multiple people with knowledge of the team’s personnel decisions told The Athletic. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Many emphasized the club has been determined to put the best possible team on the field for Opening Day — and that Volpe’s strong debut, coupled with (Oswald) Peraza’s struggles, could put the New Jersey native in the lead.

They cautioned, though, that nothing has been determined yet, and a decision could come down to the last minute with roster construction potentially playing a factor. The Yankees are overflowing with big-league middle infielders, and sending down Volpe to start the season might be their easiest path, buying them time to decide the fates of others.

PLUS: Here’s more Anthony Volpe hype for Yankees fans to enjoy

Isiah Kiner-Falefa has been unofficially eliminated from the shortstop derby by all accounts. That leaves Volpe and Peraza. The latter has more experience, the former has had a much stronger spring.

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Josh Benjamin has been a staff writer at ESNY since 2018. He has had opinions about everything, especially the Yankees and Knicks. He co-hosts the “Bleacher Creatures” podcast and is always looking for new pieces of sports history to uncover, usually with a Yankee Tavern chicken parm sub in hand.