Brayan Rocchio's 2026 breakout for Guardians adds to Yankees' Anthony Volpe woes

For about five minutes prior to the start of the Yankees’ matchup against the Guardians, Aaron Boone spent five minutes answering questions about Anthony Volpe, which ranged from where Volpe was going to hit in the lineup to whether Boone’s considering moving him to second base. 

Although Volpe was once viewed as one of the top young players on the Yankees’ roster, his stock has taken so much of a hit over the past couple seasons that he spent the first month of the season in the minors after being reinstated from the injured list. 

Meanwhile, Brayan Rocchio turned in a 2-for-4 showing with an RBI while turning in arguably the double play of the year at a huge moment in the eighth inning. 

At one point, it looked like Rocchio was going to be a top prospect who flamed out in MLB while Volpe was going to be a superstar. But now, those roles have flipped. 

Brayan Rocchio provided Guardians with yet another marquee play in loss to Yankees

It’s hard to overstate how big Rocchio’s double play was. Not only had the Yankees had already scraped the game-tying run across the plate on an RBI groundout from Paul Goldschmidt, but it looked like they were in a great spot to take the lead when Jazz Chisholm Jr. stepped to the plate with runners on first and second. 

But Rocchio had other plans, as he made a great play on a Chisholm grounder and hit the bag before throwing to first with just enough time to get the speedy Chisholm (28.3 ft/sec sprint speed). 

While Chisholm’s grounder only had a hit probability of 21%, Rocchio was in the perfect spot and made a tough defensive play look easy. 

“The thing I remembered is Chisholm is one of the fastest runners in the league,” Rocchio said of the play, via MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins. “So I just wanted to get rid of it. I knew it wasn't the best throw, but I just wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible.”

But it hasn’t just been his defense, either. After showing his offense in fits and spurts throughout the first three seasons of his career, he’s finally put it all together this year and is now slashing .284/.365/.408 with five home runs and 30 RBI while working out of the No. 9 spot in the Guardians’ lineup. 

On the other side, Volpe has a .203/.319/.305 slashline in 18 games. He has a fantastic walk rate (14.5%), but all his other advanced stats are in line with his middling counting stats. 

Although Rocchio may not have generated the same kind of attention as Volpe as a prospect, he’s clearly lapped him this season. That’s another win for the Guardians.

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