When Anthony Volpe reports to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, manager Shelley Duncan anticipates the shortstop to see some action at second base and possibly third base.
“There’s a good chance of that,” Duncan said. “We’ll see when he gets here. Us as an organization, we’ll have a plan in place for him. Anthony will be a part of that plan. We’ll move forward accordingly for what’s best for him and what’s best for the organization.”
Volpe, Jasson Domínguez, and Max Schuemann were all sent down by the Yankees on Monday following the fallout of the Trade Deadline and the promotion of top prospect George Lombard Jr. Schuemann arrived and played for the RailRiders on Wednesday night. Duncan expected Volpe and Dominguez to join the team by Friday; they had 72 hours to report.
The trio will be joining an already-good RailRiders squad. Despite having their eight-game winning streak snapped Wednesday with an 8-1 loss to the Rochester Red Wings at PNC Field, the RailRiders are in first place in the International League second-half standings with a 23-10 record, one-half game ahead of the Durham Bulls. Overall, the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate is 60-47. They are one of four teams in the 20-team league with 60 or more wins. Rochester has 64, the St. Paul Saints 63, and first-half champion Memphis Redbirds 62. During the RailRiders’ six-game series sweep at Iowa last week, they batted .343 with 79 hits, including 11 home runs, and outscored the Cubs, 50-18.
Heading into Thursday’s action, the RailRiders rank fourth in the IL in home runs with 152. On the mound, they rank first in ERA (4.14), hits allowed (774), runs allowed (492), earned runs allowed (423), WHIP (1.33), and opponents’ batting average (.227). They’re also tied for first in shutouts (7), rank second in home runs allowed (104), and tied for third in saves (29).
Two big reasons for their pitching success are right-handers Brendan Beck and Elmer Rodríguez.
Beck, the Yankees’ No. 19 prospect, is 9-2 with a 2.69 ERA in 20 starts and 118 strikeouts in 110.1 innings. He is tied for first in the league in wins with Trenton Denholm of the Columbus Clippers, is first in ERA, innings, strikeouts, and WHIP (1.02) and second in opponents’ batting average (.201). He has not lost a game at the Triple-A level since April 26th. In 14 starts since then, he is 7-0 and he hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of those outings. Additionally, six of the starts have been scoreless, including Tuesday in the series opener against Rochester, when he tossed six shutout innings with four hits, one walk, and a career-high 12 strikeouts.
Meanwhile, Rodríguez, the Yankees’ No. 3 prospect, is 7-3 with a 2.77 ERA in 16 starts and 81 strikeouts in 81.1 innings. He is coming off a month of July that saw him go 4-0 in five starts with a 2.73 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 26.1 innings with eight runs (eight earned), 26 hits, and 10 walks.
Adding Volpe, Dominguez, and Schuemann makes the RailRiders even better. They potentially could be the team to beat in the International League second half.
“The sky’s the limit,” Beck said. “Those are great players and we’re going to be excited to have them join the team. Everyone wants to be up top; this isn’t anybody’s end goal. It’s nice that we’re playing well right now and hopefully can seamlessly slide them in. Those are guys everyone is going to look to take things away from. They’ve had huge experiences in the big leagues, played in huge games. That’s something I’m interested in taking things away from them and I know the other guys are probably going to do the same.”
Duncan cautions, however, not to think things automatically will be better. He said there could be an adjustment period adding the new players.
“You don’t know honestly,” Duncan said. “The group of guys in that clubhouse over the past two weeks or so have allowed me to sit back and plug and play almost the same lineup every day. They’ve gotten really comfortable together and the chemistry in there is phenomenal. A lot of times when you bring in new players, even when you bring in really good talent, it takes a little bit for everyone to really vibe and get to know each other. The expectation can’t be they’re going to come in and have a sense of comfort. Anytime there’s any movement on a team, there’s always a little time that chemistry builds.
“Over the course of a season, you have a team’s win-loss record. But over the course of that season, you see many different teams. When I talk about that, it’s players learning to play with each other, learning to support each other, learning to sacrifice a little bit of yourself for the guy next to you. The guys in there right now are doing that with each other. When one guy doesn’t come through, the next guy picks him up. They’re able to communicate real well between at-bats and doing the little things right. I don’t think it’s fair to expect the same chemistry right out of the get-go. It takes work. Having a good team takes work. It takes constant effort to pour into that team. We’ll need to do it again. When we do, you let the talent play for itself. It will be interesting, but it will be fun at the same time.”
At various points this season, Volpe, Dominguez, and Schuemann have all played for the RailRiders, so there is some familiarity. But Duncan said when they were here, it was a completely different team. For example, when Schuemann was last here in April, the infield included Paul DeJong, Jonathan Ornelas, Braden Shewmake, and Seth Brown. None of those players are with the team now.
“There’s going to be some level of comfort,” Duncan said. “But when the makeup on teams change, there’s always work that needs to be put in with everyone.”
Despite all that, Beck believes there won’t be any issues.
“Baseball is a hard game. It’s hard to continuously go out there and have success,” Beck said. “When people come and go from the locker room, you rely on the culture of the team and the culture of the clubhouse to keep those things moving along. Luckily, we have a good culture here, so I’m excited to see what we’re able to do.”
It certainly should be quite a wild ride over the final six weeks of the season.
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