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By Jon Vankin
Contributing Sports Writer
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The struggle was real for New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe in the 2025 season, his third in the major leagues. Managing an anemic OPS of .663 with a batting average of only .212, the 24-year-old from Morristown, N.J., was not much better with the glove. His 19 errors led the American League.
It was not what the Yankees would have wanted from their 2019 first-round draft pick, which may be why the Bronx Bombers also took shortstops as their top selections in 2023, when they picked George Lombard Jr. out of Gulliver Prep in Miami. Then last year they selected another high schooler: Dax Kilby from Newnan, Georgia.
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Following the season, Volpe underwent shoulder surgery and the team now believes that the struggling infielder will rebound this year with the injury cleared up, according to MLB.com Yankees correspondent Bryan Hoch. But the fact remains that in his short career, Volpe has never committed fewer than 16 errors in a season or achieved an OPS over .666.
Both general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone continue to state their belief in Volpe, but how long that belief will last if the shortstop does not take a significant leap forward remains an open question.
Lombard is now rated by MLB Pipeline as the Yankees' No. 1 prospect and could challenge Volpe for his job sometime in the next year. Although he has appeared in only 18 professional games, all at the Single-A level, Kilby is already rated No. 7 in the organization's farm system.
"At 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, Kilby has a compact left-handed swing that gets the bat efficiently through the zone," wrote analyst Toby Schulman earlier this year. "He makes incredibly mature swing decisions for his age, and just out of high school, one would think the power ceiling hasn’t been fully tapped into."
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On Thursday, in an overview of prospects from each team projected to "break out" in 2026, MLB Pipeline writers Jesse Borek, Sam Dykstra and Ben Weinrib selected Kilby as the Yankees' top breakout candidate.
"It's rare for a player to reach Single-A the same year they're drafted out of high school, and it's even rarer for them to thrive," the Pipeline scribes wrote of the 19-year-old. "The Georgia native was one of the most advanced high school bats in the 2025 class and showed as much when he slashed .353/.457/.441 in 18 games with more walks (13) than strikeouts (11)."
MLB Pipeline also cited Kilby's ability to make "excellent swing decisions," saying that if he can "answer questions about his fringy infield defense," the teenager could jump into the top 100 prospect list this year.
Volpe has three years remaining before he becomes eligible for free agency in 2029. That is also the year that MLB Pipeline projects that Kilby will make his major league debut.
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