Young New York Yankees infielder Anthony Volpe believes the New York Mets landed a gem in new manager and former Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza.

“He’s the best,” Volpe said about Mendoza during a Thursday appearance at the MLB store in Manhattan, per Danny Abriano of SNY. “We’re definitely gonna miss him. They got an amazing guy. From day one he brought me along, took me under his wing and kind of showed me the ropes, and for me that was huge, just having someone that I could always go to.” 

Volpe won the Yankees’ starting shortstop job ahead of Opening Day this past spring and later avoided a demotion amid struggles at the plate. As noted by Bryan Hoch of the MLB website, the 22-year-old recently became the first Yankees rookie to ever win a Gold Glove. 

“Whether it be like the littlest thing of how I should approach my routine or when I should get into the cage so that I get my work in, but I’m not really interfering with anyone else,” Volpe said about what he learned from Mendoza. “Little stuff like that. He was just so free to bounce ideas off of, and then through the ups and the downs, he was always there, willing to work and everything like that, so [I’m] definitely gonna miss him and gonna be fun to compete against him now.”

Mendoza spent the past four seasons as a bench coach under Yankees manager Aaron Boone and presumably was the Mets’ second choice behind former Milwaukee Brewers skipper Craig Counsell. It was learned Monday that Counsell accepted a five-year, $40M contract to join the Chicago Cubs. 

While Mendoza is very much an unproven commodity as a big-league manager, Counsell holds the Brewers franchise record for most wins earned in the position. 

Volpe added on Thursday that “the way [Mendoza] communicated I thought was amazing.” That’s nice for a rookie, but the big-spending Mets need Mendoza to be more than a mentor and an expert communicator if they are to return to the playoffs next fall following a disastrous 2023 season.