This isn’t first time Yankees’ Anthony Volpe has gotten off to a slow start

CLEVELAND — Only three Yankees had started each of the team’s first 10 games of the season: their two hottest hitters and one of their coldest.

But while Gleyber Torres and Aaron Judge were both back in the lineup Tuesday for Game 11, trying to continue their strong starts, rookie Anthony Volpe got his first day off of the season against the Guardians at Progressive Field.

Aaron Boone said he had wanted to get Volpe one day off during this six-game road trip, and he saw the matchup Tuesday against Guardians right-hander Hunter Gaddis — when the Yankees stacked the lineup with all of their left-handed bats — as the chance to do it.

“Nothing more than that,” Boone said.

But it also served as a chance for Volpe to catch his breath after he started his big league career batting 4-for-31 (.129) with 12 strikeouts, five walks and a .444 OPS.

Four of those walks came in his first four games, but since then, Volpe was batting just 2-for-20 with nine strikeouts.

The slow start, in the extremely small sample size of 10 games, came after Volpe’s torrid spring training won him the starting shortstop job.

Still, Boone said he was not worried about Volpe’s poor start at the plate getting into his head.

How Volpe might react to those struggles was factored into the Yankees’ decision-making in having him break camp with the big league team to make his debut at the age of 21.

“I go back to, when we made the decision to go with him, part of it was we think he’s totally equipped to handle everything that’s going to come his way,” Boone said. “Even having that conversation of, ‘How’s a guy going to be if he struggles a little bit?’ We feel like Anthony, from a makeup standpoint, that’s one of the things that we love about him and why we believe in him so much is because of his makeup. I think right now, he’s totally fine.”

Volpe, who did not take batting practice on the field Tuesday, was replaced at shortstop by Oswaldo Cabrera.

The slow start to the season is not necessarily anything new for Volpe, who has experienced similar adjustment periods at the beginning of each of his last two years in the minor leagues.

In 2021, which Volpe started with Single-A Tampa, he hit .239/.372/.424 in the first month of the season before catching fire and earning a promotion to High-A Hudson Valley by July.

In 2022, which Volpe started with Double-A Somerset, he hit .183/.298/.345 in his first 38 games before taking off once again and finishing the season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

“He’s 21,” Boone said. “Maybe when he’s 30 we’ll look back and that can be a little more random. We’re talking about two seasons where sometimes it’s always a little bit difficult for anyone in the cold months getting going. But that could just be something that’s a little more random. He may get off to a great start this year and then what? We’ll see.”

While Volpe has yet to hit as the Yankees believe he can, he has not carried that onto the field, where he has played a mostly strong shortstop.

“I don’t have concerns about him at all,” Boone said. “He’s going to be a really good player, he is a really good player. I totally believe he’s cut out for all of this to handle the inevitable ups and downs that come with being a major league player. I guess it’s nice to see him doing that, but I also kind of expected that.”