Yankees’ Anthony Volpe gets day off for first time this season

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Anthony Volpe’s shot at playing all 162 games this season is over.

For the first time this year, Volpe had a full day of rest on Saturday, spending all of the Yankees’ 3-0 loss to the Rays on the bench.

In the six other games he was not in the starting lineup this season, the rookie shortstop had found his way into the action to play in all 128 of the Yankees’ games entering Saturday.

Volpe was the last Yankee who had played in every game, but now that streak has come to an end.

“I think there’s value in the fact that he’s played every day,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game. “The fact that he’s played every single day — we certainly want to be mindful. He’s never gone through and played a full major league season through the month of September and stuff like that. Whether it’s 152, 162, 156, you like to see those kinds of numbers.

“His ability to post, I think he’s stayed physically sound, which has been encouraging. Going through the grind of your first season at this level, Yankees shortstop, I think he’s handled it really well.”

The Yankees have not had a player appear in all 162 games of a season since Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui in 2005.

The 22-year-old Volpe did not take on-field batting practice before Saturday’s game, as it looked like the Yankees were trying to give him off his typical pregame work.

The most Volpe has played in any single season as a pro was last year, when he played 132 games (with 596 plate appearances) between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

This year, Volpe has 474 plate appearances.

While he has endured his fair share of struggles at the plate, he has shown more signs of improvement in the second half along with playing strong defense overall.

Anthony Rizzo (post-concussion syndrome) and Josh Donaldson (calf strain) took live batting practice against the rehabbing Luis Gil (Tommy John surgery) on Saturday morning at the Yankees’ player development complex in Tampa.

Boone said Donaldson could begin a rehab assignment “soon,” though he is not eligible to come off the 60-day injured list until Sept. 14.

Boone said the Yankees would “at some point” like to get catching prospect Austin Wells, who is currently at Triple-A, a look at first base.

But the organization has been encouraged by his work behind the plate.

“We also feel like he continues to make really good strides as a catcher,” Boone said. “We want to keep that development progression going, especially as he’s climbing levels.”

After throwing a career-high 6²/₃ innings Saturday, Clarke Schmidt has now thrown 129 ²/₃ innings this year, the most of any single season during his pro career.

His previous high was 90 ²/₃ innings in 2019.

While Boone said the Yankees are monitoring Schmidt’s workload, they felt good about how he has responded to the heavy workload.

“It is big to create a threshold [of innings] there,” Boone said. “Obviously we’ll continue to monitor as he goes through it. But feel really good about where he’s at physically and how his stuff and stamina seems to be holding up.”