This is the 10,000th time the word "agressive" has been tortured and abused to describe a stupid play by Anthony Volpe.

You kind of have to watch the play in question to believe it.

I can't find much discussion of the term "clutch fielding," but I believe in clutch fielding, and Volpe is a choker in all aspects of baseball:

"The sixth-inning grounder was hit to Anthony Volpe's right, and as he pursued the bouncing object on the Rogers Centre turf, the Yankees shortstop had a split second to read the play. The tying run would score, Ernie Clement was digging hard for first base and Nathan Lukes was chugging into second representing the potential go-ahead run.

Volpe went for the gold, banking on a miracle putout at first base. It backfired; his throw arrived late and Lukes grabbed a free base. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made the Yankees pay with a hard go-ahead two-run single that rocketed under Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s glove at third base – the deciding runs in New York’s 5-4 loss to the Blue Jays on Monday night."

I also like the pointless ritual of postgame monitoring of his response to bad games. Is he contrite? Did he learn?

The daily deer-in-the-headlights look of the perpetually "young" player.

This guy is going to be described as an up-and-coming rookie with a big upside after twelve years on the bench. 

“'We’re going to be aggressive, try to make plays and back up the pitcher,' Volpe said. 'So that’s baseball. It happens. We had a lot of opportunities after that, too. I feel like we still took good at-bats and put good swings on the ball.'"

"We."

After I screwed up in the field, my teammates almost came back to win the game.

"That's baseball! It happens! What are you gonna do?" 

Again, you have to actually see the play to understand the lack of baseball intelligence and instincts. It's on display from the Yankee shortstop every day. He benefits from a widespread presumption that shortstops are intelligent.

There was no play at first base. The runner is nowhere to be seen as the camera pans across the field and the first baseman catches the ball. The runner is a few steps past the base, down the first base line. 

The Yankees have wisely dropped him in the lineup.

Pretty soon, he's going to be benched.

The Volpe Experiment is over. They gave him a shot and he couldn't do it.

 

I also have a new favorite stat of 2025. Still don't think Volpe is a choker?

In tie games, Volpe is batting .101 in 69 at-bats.

Within one run? .169.

Withing two runs? .188.

Etc.

When the score of the game is within 4 runs, Volpe is batting .205.

But when the margin is >4 runs, Volpe is batting .364.