anthony volpe yankees
Dave Nelson | USA TODAY Sports

Even though the Yankees just couldn’t admit defeat with Isiah Kiner-Falefa, you have to give them credit. They’re willing to let all options have a legit shot at winning the starting shortstop job. Could it actually be Anthony Volpe?

It’s probably still a long shot based on his situation (i.e. no real Triple-A seasoning and lots of veteran middle infielders on the roster). But he’s played so well that he just might force New York’s hand to give him the job.

In addition to playing some good defense, the 21-year-old has looked quite comfortable at the plate. Through 47 Grapefruit League at-bats, Volpe owns a .967 OPS with three homers, five RBI, and five stolen bases.

With Harrison Bader starting the year on the injured list, the Yankees could use his speed. Plus, you can’t say he wouldn’t fit into a projected Opening Day lineup nicely.

His third homer of the spring came on Friday afternoon. And just because we can’t get enough Volpe right now, here are all three of those dingers in one clip:

Just beautiful, right? It’ll be great to see that sweet swing in the Bronx this year. Even if it doesn’t happen next week, the clock is most definitely ticking now. I mean, it was already a matter of “when”, not “if”. Either way, Anthony Volpe has done a great job of accelerating his timeline even more over the past five weeks.

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You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.

Matt Musico is an editor for ESNY. He’s been writing about baseball and the Mets for the past decade. His work has been featured on numberFire, MetsMerized Online, Bleacher Report, and Yahoo! Sports.