Erik Boland: Yankees' Anthony Volpe close to being back, but what type of player will club get?
Yankees' Anthony Volpe during spring training on photo day on Feb. 18 at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Ready or not, here he comes.
Anthony Volpe knows as well as anyone that the news of his impending return won’t be greeted with celebratory confetti from the very vocal segment of Yankees fans who have given up on him even though he’s only 24 years old.
And Volpe, who grew up a Yankees fan, gets it.
He hasn’t played to his standards, either.
“It might sound cliche and everything, but no one’s more . . . ,” Volpe said Friday, pausing briefly before continuing. “You can’t be more [ticked] at how I’ve played than me.”
Volpe, who started this season on the injured list as he finished his rehab from October surgery to repair a labrum tear in his left shoulder, spoke early Friday afternoon to reporters from Newsday and the Bergen Record after taking nine at-bats in a simulated game at the club’s minor-league complex.
He’ll have more at-bats on Saturday and maybe on Sunday before accompanying the Yankees on their flight back to New York on Sunday night. After getting evaluated by team doctors on Monday, Volpe will start a rehab assignment perhaps as early as Tuesday with Double-A Somerset.
Volpe was under the impression that it would start then, though manager Aaron Boone and general manager Brian Cashman, both of whom spoke later in the day, weren’t as specific, other than to say it would be “soon.”
Rehab assignments for position players cannot last longer than 20 days — barring an injury setback, of course — meaning that if Volpe starts his on Tuesday, he’ll return no later than May 4.
Cashman was quite specific in answering this question: Is Volpe the starting shortstop when he does return?
“That’s always been the plan,” he said.
He quickly added: “But it’ll ultimately be the manager’s call.”
The Yankees go to great lengths — often embarrassing lengths that bring to mind Shakespeare’s oft-quoted line, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks” — to frame every decision, especially when it comes to the lineup, as solely Boone’s instead of simply acknowledging that many decisions are collaborative, the case in most organizations.
Regardless, Jose Caballero’s performance these first two weeks will make the decision that comes from that collaboration a relatively easy one unless things change dramatically. Caballero, a utilityman who provided an instant spark after being acquired at the trade deadline last season and whom fans quickly viewed as a preferred alternative to Volpe, is off to a rough start.
Caballero went 0-for-3 in Friday night’s 5-3 loss to the Rays, which dropped him to a .125/.186/.150 slash line (5-for-40). Volpe’s numbers from last season, when he hit .212 with 19 homers and a .663 OPS, suddenly don’t seem quite as dreadful (though certainly not good, either).
Volpe never used the shoulder injury — which he suffered May 3 when he made a diving attempt for a ball in a game against the Rays — as an alibi for his poor play, neither in public nor behind the scenes to his teammates or coaches.
After the season, Cashman said, “I personally think now . . . that yes, it [the shoulder] was affecting him because ultimately he had to have a surgery.”
But in-season, Volpe, whose work ethic has been touted by coaches and teammates at every level of the organization he’s played at since being drafted 30th overall in 2019, kept the discomfort he felt to himself.
For Volpe, that’s in the past. While talking Friday, the shortstop wore a smile missing during much of 2025.
“I feel great, my body feels great, my shoulder feels as good as it’s felt,” he said.
A durable player his entire career dating to high school, Volpe said of sitting out the start of the season, “It’s been brutal. But it feels good to feel good, at the same time.”
There will be no honeymoon period for Volpe, a lightning rod among an impatient fan base, much of which already is pushing for George Lombard Jr., the hyped shortstop prospect who is off to a fast start in Double-A.
Lombard entered Friday with a .476/.522/.952 slash line (10-for-21) with four doubles and two homers.
That noise aside, Lombard isn’t an immediate threat to Volpe. Lombard struggled most of last season in Double-A and isn’t coming to the majors anytime soon, but that can’t be ruled out by season’s end.
None of which is of concern to Volpe, who, when he was Lombard’s age (20), heard similar hype surrounding him.
“I got to go to work and we made some really good adjustments,” Volpe said. “I just can’t wait to get back there and just compete and help the team win. I’m good to go.”
Ready or not . . .
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.
