Around the Empire: Yankees news - 3/31/23

New York Post | Greg Joyce: You may have heard, but Thursday’s game featured the MLB debut of shortstop Anthony Volpe. For his debut, Volpe — and other major league debutants this season — will wear a special patch on their uniforms for their first game. After the game, the patches will then be removed and put into a special edition trading card by Topps. The commercial nature of it makes it a little less fun, but a player getting something special for their debut is a nice idea.

NJ.com | Max Goodman: In his debut, Volpe went 0-for-2 with a walk and made some nice plays on defense against the Giants. After the game, he got good reviews from his teammates, with Aaron Judge saying his game was “impressive.” In his first roll call from the Bleacher Creatures, Volpe kissed the “NY” logo on the uniform after getting a loud ovation during introductions.

MLB Trade Rumors | Darragh McDonald and Anthony Franco: After Thursday’s game, the Yankees made a move, acquiring pitcher Colton Brewer from the Rays for cash considerations. The right-hander has pitched in just one MLB game since the start of 2021, as he battled injuries that year and spent 2022 with the Royals’ Triple-A team. Brewer had a solid spring, but didn’t make Tampa Bay’s MLB roster, leading to yesterday’s deal. It’s unclear exactly what move to get him on the 40-man roster will be made, but there’s been some smoke around Estevan Florial.

Yahoo Sports | Liz Roscher: The Yankees have retired a lot of numbers over the years, on the back of being an extremely successful franchise who’ve had a lot of beloved players don the pinstripes. With 22 numbers out of rotation, the Yankees have gone to MLB with a request that they stop issuing them to managers and coaches in an effort to still have numbers around for players. Running out of numbers to retire because you’ve simply had too many cool and good players is some first world problems, but I’m not about to suggest which players get theirs unretired.

Associated Press | Ronald Blum: When the Yankees players got to their lockers ahead of yesterday’s game, they had a gift waiting for them from Anthony Rizzo. The Yankees’ first baseman gifted each of his teammates two bottles of wine from an Italian winery. Rizzo said giving gifts to teammates was something that had been done by veterans on teams he was on, and he hopes it’s something that eventually the younger Yankees will do for their teammates.