​Rewriting the provided material into a natural, coherent narrative in paragraph form, with no extraneous commentary or explanations:
In Saint Petersburg, Anthony Volpe, usually soft-spoken and concise, spent almost seven minutes defending his character and denying a rumor that he had refused to play second base. “It definitely caught me off guard. It’s confusing, just because it’s not true. It couldn’t be further from the truth, and from my end, from my perspective, that’s been very clearly communicated to Aaron Boone and the team. I think it’s just kind of B.S., honestly,” Volpe said before the Yankees faced the Rays on Wednesday. “I hope my teammates in here — and I’ve played for them for three-plus years — I hope they know my character, and that I’d literally do anything to help the team win, literally anything. I feel like I’m defending myself over something that literally didn’t happen.” He spoke passionately after Michael Kay, the Yankees’ play-by-play announcer on the YES Network, claimed that the career shortstop refused to play second base. “When he was in the minor leagues, the Yankees said, ‘Maybe you should play some shortstop,’” Kay initially said Tuesday on ESPN New York. “And he allegedly said, ‘No, I’m a shortstop.’ That’s not a good look, if it happened.” On Wednesday, Kay walked back his remarks about Volpe—who remains a polarizing figure among fans—after they spread rapidly on social media. The veteran broadcaster also told reporters at Tropicana Field that he would apologize to Volpe. “I had had two people tell me, and I heard rumors, and I was wrong,” Kay admitted. “So when somebody called me today and said, ‘That’s not right,’ I made further calls and they said, ‘No, he had never refused to play second base,’ so I retracted it. I plan to talk to [Volpe] at some point today or tomorrow and apologize. I feel badly for it. I wouldn’t want to put him in the crosshairs.” While Volpe has spent the last few weeks, to some extent, working out at second base, he has not appeared at second in the majors, having spent his professional career at shortstop. The 25-year-old explained that Boone first broached the possibility of him playing second when José Caballero returned from a fractured finger on May 22. Before Caballero’s injury, he had been shining as the Yankees’ starting shortstop while Volpe recovered from offseason shoulder surgery, a stretch that culminated in Caballero’s strong contributions enough to prompt the Yankees to option Volpe to Triple-A at the end of his rehab assignment. “I’ve been working, ready to go for literally anything, so it’s just confusing to me,” Volpe said before he played shortstop and Caballero handled second against the Rays. Volpe, who played some second base in high school and briefly at the start of his pro career, added that he would feel comfortable if needed there. “I don’t know where that’s come from, because Anthony is going for better SEO.”