The Yankees’ former everyday shortstop seemingly is ready to return to the big leagues.
Anthony Volpe, who underwent left shoulder surgery last October, went 2-for-4 for Double-A Somerset on Wednesday in his 10th rehab game. That improved him to 10-for-33 (.303) in his rehab assignment.
But after a slow start, the current everyday shortstop has looked the part of one.
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 home runs, a .713 OPS and 12 steals in 16 tries.
It has been a relatively smooth ride for the Yankees when it comes to their roster and doling out playing time.
Yes, there has 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 other ways to get Goldschmidt reps — which he 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 when the Yankees open a four-game series against the Orioles at the Stadium; if not then, certainly soon thereafter — the tough-call portion of the 2026 regular season officially will commence for the club.
On the surface, it isn’t all that difficult. The old sports mantra about a player not losing a starting job to injury 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 — which had far more positives than many Yankees fans are willing to credit him with — do not fit that category. That neither means Caballero will be the everyday answer 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 is 18-for-49 (.367) with two homers, two doubles and six steals in his last 14 games, has done everything the Yankees could have hoped for.
Are those numbers sustainable? Caballero’s career to this point suggests no. He had a career .228 batting average and .316 on-base percentage in his previous three big-league seasons (2023-25). Still, his performance has done nothing to scream that 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 Wednesday 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,” he said. “It’s Wednesday. He’s playing in Somerset today. We’ll see.”
On April 10, general manager Brian Cashman appeared to make the club’s intention clear when he was directly asked: Is Volpe the starting shortstop when he returns?
“That’s always been the plan,” he said before
almost reflexively adding: “But it’ll ultimately be the manager’s call.”
It’s 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 to the manager as a marionette, complete with strings manipulated from above by unseen organizational hands.
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 that 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 George Lombard Jr., promoted to Triple-A earlier this week. It’s a long shot but not a no-shot.
The Yankees seem to be operating in a particularly cold-blooded fashion this season in some of their decision-making, and this is to their credit.
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.
