Yankees Top Prospect Volpe Named 2021 Minor League Position Player Of Year

Yankee Stadium. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Yankees announced the 2021 Kevin Lawn Awards on Wednesday morning, with  top prospect, shortstop Anthony Volpe being awarded the Position Player of the Year honor, and right-hander Hayden Wesneski receiving the Pitcher of the Year Award.

The awards are dedicated to Kevin O'Brien Lawn, the son of longtime Yankees Vice President and Chief of Operations Jack Lawn, who passed away in 1999.

The 20-year-old Volpe enters the 2022 season ranked by Baseball America as the Yankees' No. 1 prospect and the No. 10 overall prospect across all Major League Baseball organizations. 

Volpe played in 109 games combined with Low-A Tampa and High-A Hudson Valley in the 2021 season, and he hit .294, with a .423 on-base percentage, and a .604 slugging %, with 27 home runs, 86 RBI, 78 walks, 135 runs scored, 35 doubles, and 33 stolen bases. He was named a MiLB.com Organization All-Star last season after he led the Minor Leagues in runs scored and ranking third in extra-base hits with 68. 

Within the Yankees organization, Volpe led all minor leaguers in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS (1.027), doubles, and walks, tied for first in total bases with 249, ranked second in RBI, third in home runs, and fourth in batting average and stolen bases.

The Watchung, New Jersey, native was drafted by the Yankees with the 30th overall pick in the first round of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft. He is a graduate of Delbarton High School in Morristown, NJ.

Wesneski, 24, pitched in 25 games combined with High-A Hudson Valley, Double-A Somerset, and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, last sesson. He compiled an overall record of 11-6 with a 3.25 ERA, threw two complete games, pitched 130.1 innings, allowing 110 hits, 52 runs (47 earned), 36 walks, and notched 151 strikeouts, as well as allowing 13 home runs.

Like his fellow honoree, Wesneski was named a MiLB.com Organization All-Star last season after leading all Yankees minor leaguers in wins, innings pitched, and starts while ranking second in strikeouts, fourth in WHIP (1.12) and fifth in ERA. He enters the 2022 season ranked the sixth-highest Yankees prospect by Baseball America. 

Wesneski, a Houston, Texas, native, was chosen by the Yankees in the sixth round of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft out of Sam Houston State University.

Volpe and Wesneski will each receive a trophy created by Brown's Trophies of St. Petersburg, FL, and and engraved designer watch, from Betteridge Jewelers.