Yankees fans teach Aaron Boone lesson after Anthony Volpe lies pass breaking point

The New York Yankees have, admittedly, backed themselves into a difficult corner with Anthony Volpe. Unfortunately, instead of chiseling out of it carefully, they've decided to glue themselves to the corner, smiling so hard their faces fleck with sweat along the way.

The reality of the situation is that the Yankees made their bed when they used Volpe's emergence in the minors as an excuse to stay out of the market for free agent solutions like Corey Seager entirely. If they'd competed for Seager and lost the bidding, maybe things would be different. Instead, they opted out, touting Volpe's innate instincts and handing him the Opening Day honors befitting of a homegrown superstar in 2023 without stopping long enough to consider what might happen if they failed him.

Volpe paired his below-average, but promising, rookie season (20-20!) with a change in approach and descent further into offensive madness in 2024. Somehow, his "Year 3 leap" involved a complete reversal defensively, paired with more of the same offensive stagnation. It's getting worse — and so are the Yankees' flailing attempts to distract from reality with plastered-on positivity.

There's a middle ground here. The Yankees would be doing themselves a disservice roasting Volpe every time he makes a mistake. The talk radio screamers will find him regardless; the team doesn't need to exacerbate the issue by yanking him off the field and slapping him upside the head.

But to say fans are "losing patience" with Aaron Boone's yammering defenses is an understatement. Volpe's a negative-OAA player. He leads the world in inaccurate throws. His 12 errors lap the field. Boone, after a two-out, gasoline-pouring throwing error in the fifth inning Monday night, claimed Volpe is merely a few plays away from the same level he reached last season. That is not true. It's nowhere close to true. Boone doesn't have to flambée him and make things worse, but he's months too deep into Volpe's new reality to still be spewing such unencumbered positivity.

Struggling to find the midpoint, and a way to communicate the message that needs to be communicated without gumming it up with platitudes? Here you go. Yankees fans have your back.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone has chosen the worst possible path in defending Anthony Volpe

Of all the truly mind-boggling things about the current Yankees regime — Brian Cashman's resistance to filling holes, the team's inability to rise to the occasion in spotlight games, the enduring sloppiness — the manager's inability to find a way to express belief in his guys, but do it earnestly, might be the most baffling of all.

Some crazed fans want Boone to "show accountability," take the podium, and say unrealistic trash like, "That error was awful. AWFUL. We've got to clean it up. Embarrassing for the pinstripes." That will never happen.

But why can't Boone admit that Volpe's defensive regression has caused a crisis of confidence, and it's the Yankees' job to get him back up to the heights they know he can reach? Is it because they're starting to realize those heights are unreachable, and it's their fault his development stalled? Is Boone covering for the team's lack of viable solution by claiming fervently that no solution is necessary? Things are not, in fact, fine. The machine is leaking coolant.

The New York Yankees dismissed Joe Girardi because he was too rigid and intolerant of their next generation. They've empowered Boone because he's firmly aligned with that generation — the most disappointing, relative to their ceiling, in Yankees franchise history. Gary Sánchez disappointed. Gleyber Torres disappointed. Luis Severino disappointed. Oswald Peraza, Tyler Austin, Estevan Florial, Deivi Garcia ... if Aaron Judge wasn't the development win of all development wins, the regime would've been decimated.

Yankee fans have high expectations — probably too high, warped by the '90s and a generation that defied the game's randomness and captured two or three more titles than they were probably owed by the universe. But that doesn't mean, in their unceasing quest for a championship, they should silently swallow being lied to. Another homegrown superstar at the shortstop position may be too much to ask for, but an honest answer and effective communication certainly isn't.

For many, Monday represented the final straw. For the rest of us, that jar has been straw-free since last May.