Erik Boland: How will the Yankees handle Anthony Volpe's pending return?
Anthony Volpe of the Yankees warms up before Game 2 of the ALDS against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Oct. 5, 2025, in Toronto. Credit: Getty Images
The former everyday shortstop seemingly is ready to return to the big leagues.
Anthony Volpe, who underwent shoulder surgery last October after a disastrous 2025 season, went 2-for-4 for Double-A Somerset on Wednesday in his 10th rehab game. That improved Volpe, who turned 25 on Tuesday, to 10-for-33 (.303) in his rehab assignment.
But the current everyday shortstop, after a slow start, has looked the part of one a month into the season.
Jose Caballero, a 2025 trade deadline acquisition who sparked the Yankees with his considerable abilities on the bases and slick glove at multiple positions, is hitting .267 with three homers, a .713 OPS and 12 stolen bases (in 16 tries).
It has been a relatively smooth ride for the Yankees, to this point, when it comes to their roster and doling out playing time.
Yes, there’s been a mini-flareup here and there, namely the early season platooning of Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt — though manager Aaron Boone refused to call it that even as it walked like a platoon and quacked like a platoon. But Rice, slashing .327/.443/.714 with 10 homers, forced the Yankees to find, fairly quickly, other ways to get Goldschmidt reps — which the veteran needs and should get — other than simply when a “tough” opposing lefthander starts.
With Volpe about to be cleared, perhaps as early as Friday night at the Stadium when the Yankees open a four-game series against the Orioles and, if not then certainly soon thereafter, the tough-call portion of the 2026 regular season officially commences for the organization.
On the surface, it isn’t all that difficult.
There is, of course, the old sports mantra about players not losing their starting job to injury. But that comes with the caveat that the injured player did enough to keep it.
By any objective measure, Volpe’s first three years as the starting shortstop, though with far more positives to it than many Yankees fans are willing to credit him with, does not fit that category. That neither means Caballero as the everyday answer there the rest of the season nor that Volpe eventually won’t be.
But starting shortstop for the Yankees isn’t a lifetime appointment. And Caballero, who went 1-for-3 Wednesday and is 18-for-49 (.367) with two homers, two doubles and six stolen bases in his last 14 games, has done everything the Yankees could have realistically hoped for.
Are those numbers sustainable?
The 29-year-old Caballero’s career to this point suggests no. He, after all, entered this year with a career .228 batting average and .316 on-base percentage in his previous three big-league seasons (2023-25). Still, Caballero’s performance has done nothing to scream he needs to come out of the everyday lineup (though he needs to dial it down a notch with umpires).
Not surprisingly, the topic is one Boone has little interest in addressing until he absolutely has to.
“We’ll see,” he said before Wednesday’s game in Arlington of the plans for Volpe. “He’s playing again today [in Somerset]. We’ll see.”
Pressed on Volpe’s role once he’s back, Boone went rinse-and-repeat.
“We’ll see,” Boone said. “It’s Wednesday. He’s playing in Somerset today. We’ll see.”
Back on April 10, Brian Cashman appeared to make the club’s intention clear when directly asked: Is Volpe the starting shortstop when he returns?
“That’s always been the plan,” Cashman said at Tropicana Field before his team’s game against the Rays.
Cashman, almost reflexively, added: “But it’ll ultimately be the manager’s call.”
Now, it is critical to recognize that the Yankees spare no effort in casting every decision regarding the roster and how it’s deployed, especially the lineup, as solely Boone’s. They don’t want to be viewed as operating collaboratively — which they do — the way pretty much every team does.
Which doesn’t equate, as the Yankees take as the implication, to the manager as a marionette, complete with strings manipulated from above by unseen organizational hands.
Meanwhile, discussions on Volpe-Caballero have been ongoing behind closed doors, continuing into Thursday. Not surprisingly, there is far from unanimity when it comes to opinions.
Boone’s will carry significant weight, just not the only weight. And while there assuredly will be knee-jerk overreaction to whatever call is made, it is important to remember, regardless of which way it goes, five months of season remain. Volpe starting at short on May 1 doesn’t mean he’s there Sept. 1. Same goes for Caballero. Maybe it’s neither. Maybe it’s top prospect George Lombard Jr., promoted earlier this week to Triple-A.
A long shot but not a no-shot. The Yankees seem to be operating, and this is to their credit, particularly cold-blooded this season in some of their decision-making.
Doesn’t make any of it any less fascinating.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
