Michael Kay added fuel to the New York Yankees’ growing Anthony Volpe problem, and now he’s taking it back.
Once believed to be the next Derek Jeter, Volpe has failed to prove he’s the long-term answer at shortstop for the Yankees. The Yankees, however, continue to give Volpe every opportunity to keep the job, but maybe that’s just because he refuses to play anywhere else.
During his Tuesday afternoon edition of The Michael Kay Show on ESPN New York, the TV voice of the Yankees claimed he heard Volpe has been unwilling to consider a different position when approached about a potential switch to second base.
Michael Kay has heard from multiple people that the Yankees asked Anthony Volpe to play some second base in the minors and Volpe said “no, I’m a shortstop”
(via @ESPNNewYork) pic.twitter.com/sxUhHhBABm
— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 8, 2026
“He has not played great at shortstop,” Kay acknowledged. “And the one thing he’s done, and I’m not sure that it’s done, but there have been enough people that have told me that it was done, that when he was in the minor leagues, the Yankees said, ‘Maybe you should play some second base,’ and he said, ‘No, I’m a shortstop.’ That’s not a good look if it happened.”
After winning a Gold Glove in his rookie year in 2023, Volpe has regressed defensively and even led the American League in errors last season. Volpe returned to the minors earlier this season as he worked his way back from shoulder surgery. It was seemingly then that the Yankees may have approached Volpe about a position switch.
The news that Volpe was unwilling to consider a switch sparked a firestorm, with the shortstop already having a bit of a target on his back, and Yankee fans looking for reasons to ship him out of town. This rumor was coming from Kay, the voice of the Yankees. If Michael Kay is hearing about Volpe’s insistence that he’s a shortstop from “enough people,” those people are presumably people who would know.
Wednesday morning, however, Kay retracted what he said less than 24 hours earlier about Volpe being unwilling to switch positions, claiming there is “absolutely not truth” to the rumor.
I spoke of a rumor yesterday on TMKS that Anthony Volpe would not play 2B in the minors. Sounded unlike him, so I checked further today and there is absolutely no truth to it whatsoever. He never refused to work at second. Will speak more of it today at 1 pm @ESPNNewYork.
— Michael Kay (@RealMichaelKay) July 8, 2026
“I spoke of a rumor yesterday on TMKS that Anthony Volpe would not play 2B in the minors,” Kay posted on social media. “Sounded unlike him, so I checked further today, and there is absolutely no truth to it whatsoever. He never refused to work at second.”
It’s hard to imagine Kay would have taken this rumor to the airwaves without vetting it first, but that’s essentially what the Yankees announcer is now claiming. He heard the rumor from “enough people”; he shared it publicly; he checked it; and he learned it wasn’t true.
Now the question is, who were the “enough people” that told Kay about the rumor? Because it’s safe to assume Kay wasn’t taking organizational information from people who weren’t Yankees. Either Kay was given bad information that he trusted enough to share over the air, or someone else is now trying to pour cold water on the Volpe firestorm.
