Anthony Volpe is out of the lineup as the Yankees open their series against the Nationals. It’s the second straight game in which José Caballero gets the start at shortstop. New York is giving the scuffling Volpe what amounts to a two-day mental reset. However, manager Aaron Boone made clear this evening that the Yankees aren’t moving the third-year infielder to the bench.
“I view Anthony as our shortstop,” Boone told reporters (including Chris Kirschner of The Athletic). The skipper confirmed that Volpe would be back in the lineup tomorrow and continue playing regularly from that point. He added that the Yanks consider Caballero their “10th man” and will keep bouncing him around the diamond in a utility role (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com).
Volpe is hitting .208/.274/.400 across 509 plate appearances. He had a productive April but carries a .198/.255/.382 batting line in 96 games since the beginning of May. Volpe has never hit for a high average or reached base at a strong clip. He’s tied with Dansby Swanson for eighth among shortstops with 18 home runs, but he hasn’t been a productive overall hitter. The struggles have magnified over the past six weeks, as he’s batting .171 with a .203 on-base percentage going back to July 1. Among 253 hitters with at least 100 plate appearances in that stretch, only Miami’s Dane Myers has a lower batting average. No one has a worse on-base mark.
The offensive drought is magnified by his uncharacteristic issues on the other side of the ball. Volpe won a Gold Glove as a rookie in 2023; he was a finalist for that honor last year. He trailed only Swanson and Ezequiel Tovar in combined Defensive Runs Saved among shortstops over those two seasons. Statcast’s Outs Above Average had him tied for seventh. Even with the OBP deficiencies, Volpe’s power and plus defense made him a valuable all-around player. The Yankees presumably felt he was on a similar trajectory as Swanson, an eventual everyday shortstop on a World Series team who received a $177MM free agent contract.
Volpe’s defensive grades have tanked this year as well. DRS has him right around average. Statcast has him five runs below par, tying him for fourth worst at the position. Volpe has committed 17 errors, matching his career high with another month to play. Only Elly De La Cruz (19) has been charged with more this season.
Caballero, acquired from the Rays at the deadline, has gotten out to a fantastic start to his Yankee tenure. He’s hitting .286 with more walks than strikeouts in 15 games. Caballero has stolen six bases in seven tries and is up to an MLB-high 40 steals between Tampa Bay and New York. He led the American League with 44 steals last year, though he was also caught a league leading 16 times. Caballero is a plus runner and versatile defender but is unlikely to remain an above-average hitter over a large sample. He owns a .227/.313/.337 batting line in more than 1000 career plate appearances.
There’s no argument that Caballero hasn’t been the more productive player of late. Still, the 24-year-old Volpe entered the season as New York’s expected franchise shortstop. Caballero is soon to turn 29 and is established as a high-end utility player. The Yankees can still find playing time for him on most days. He’s a right-handed complement to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ryan McMahon at second and third base, respectively. They’re tolerating Giancarlo Stanton in right field for as long as Aaron Judge is unable to throw at game speed, but they’ll frequently kick Caballero into the outfield later in games for defensive purposes.
I wish someone loved me as unconditionally as Boone loves Volpe.
If this is Conforto’s burner account, your’re in luck bc Dave Roberts loves you more
What do you expect? It’s the coach’s son!
Caballero is the better option. Get’er done.
He’s a 3rd year player who has to adjust to the adjustments made to him. The Yanks success isn’t teetering on Volpe’s or Well’s offense. They deserve more time to try and fight thru their issues but give other guys a shot when it makes sense.
Doesn’t it make sense now as team is fighting for a playoffs berth and they’re both not contributing?
@Yank
Well is 3rd in fielding, 12th in WAR for catchers and has 17 hrs and seems to call a
good game. How is that not contributing? Volpe is still on pace to have a 30 dbl, 20 homer and 20 sb season. His defense is shaky but still serviceable. Both are cheap and under control. You don’t need to bury them at the end of the bench or in AAA yet.
You could make the opposite argument though. Look what the Mets did with their former top prospect Francisco Alvarez. He got sent down and figured things out then was hitting at a great clip before he got injured. Volpe needs more than a 2-day reset, he needs to get some confidence and if that means playing against some lesser competition for a couple weeks then why not?
12th in WAR, so at the bottom among playoff teams.
All I’m saying is maybe send them down to AAA for a couple of games to recalibrate. Wells is at negative bWAR. Nobody is talking about moving on from them. A temporary fill-in of Rice/JC Escarra and Caballero can’t do much worse. This team needs to win games at all cost. Can’t worry about the feelings of two guys among 26.
In the car of Wells he’s still preforming well defensively so he can be an asset too.
IMO, Wells and Volpe are hurting this team. Volpe’s defense is “serviceable” for most routine games, but big games, in big spots, is where he makes crucial errors. Wells is a black hole in the lineup.
Regardless, the Yankees don’t owe it to either one to let them figure it out during a division or playoff race, particularly when they have better options available on the bench.
More to the point, the Yankees have given Volpe more leash than any other player during Volpe’s tenure. Exactly when is it too much to you, bro? Volpe has been the exact same offensive player for three years – it’s who he is, a below average offensive player. Only now, he’s a well-below-average defensive player too……
Has the whole “day off to reset” thing ever worked.
A guy sucks and a day off – not even at home and still sitting on the bench – ever made an athlete all of a sudden great?
I can’t remember it, in any sport, but I hear it happening all the time.
I can see it if a guy is sore, hurting, or having some sort of emotional trauma but just because they are slumping or not very good in general? Never.
Kyle Tucker was given a couple days off last week to mentally reset after scuffling the last two months. He’s come back to hit three home runs in two days. Days off are welcome, no matter your profession.
This is one example of why the Yankees will not win under Boone. He is simply not a good manager for this organization.
It goes deeper than boone
The minor league system and coaches are also to blame in addition to the analytical staff
I think the GM is to blame for many of the problems plaguing that franchise right now but unfortunately it’s Cashman’s job until he retires or decides to leave the organization. He’s basically part of the Steinbrenner family.
There is much organizational blame to go around. Don’t forget that fiasco of an analytics dept. headed up by Fishman. The rot goes deep.
What exactly is the problem?
@KnicksFanCavsFan that the Knicks fired Thibs and the Cavs with Atkinson as HC isn’t gonna get it done. Focus on that in the NBA and let us Yankees fans worry here. Your contrarian optimism is useless.
First off, I’m a Yankee fan first and foremost, so kick rocks, but ìm hearing a lot of complaining but not hearing anyone articulating the problem, let alone the solution.
The problem is the Yankees have been running out the second-worst offensive player in MLB for the last three months and he’s not done anything to turn it around.
Yanks are at the top of just about every offensive category. Volpe isn’t keeping them out of first place and they really don’t have
a demonstrable better option to suplant him as the starter.
I wouldn’t blame Boone. As a prospect, the floor was Derek Jeter and the ceiling was greatest player of all time for Volpe according to all Yankee fans. It is hard expectations to live up to.
Huh? It’s only some fans drinking the Yankees hype-machine kool-aid that believe that the floor is first ballot HOF’er Jeter up to Honus Wagner. That’s pretty delusional.
That wasn’t Yankees fans, that was the Yankees organization. They passed on several good-to-great SS that were available because Volpe was supposed to be the next Yankee great… it’s one reason fans are so pissed at Cashman.
Not really. Hal has made it clear that the team isn’t going to be $25-30M players at every position. Passing on Correa, for example, looks to have been a great decision, in the short and long term.
No one…. NO ONE… ever held expectations of Volpe being anywhere near the category of Jeter at the floor for Volpe offensively.
He can’t take a walk to save his life.
Volpe has minor league options. Just send him down to work on his game in Scranton. Doesn’t mean you are giving up on him. Doesn’t mean you are handing him the keys to the most important position on the field. You are making him earn his spot again. Just do it.
Normally, I’d say you’re spot-on; but with this organization, I don’t think it will matter.
It’s abundantly clear they don’t stress fundamentals at any stage of the minors, which is why the Yankees have so many issues when their prospects are promoted to MLB.
They definitely have issues with developing fundamentally sound players. I agree with that. There isnt much minor league season left anyway. But hey, if Volpe was playing good defense I would be fine with him staying up with the team and figuring out his offense. But if his defense is suffering as well; he has to go down to try and fix everything, no? Using 1 option isn’t going to hurt all that much.
I completely agree with you. Plus, it would get him out of the limelight for a bit.
I really hope the best for Volpe, and obviously he’s talented. I don’t think the Yankees do the prospects any favors when they train them the way they do and then tell the fans they are the next whoever, (ie, Spencer Jones is the “Left-handed Judge”). Too much pressure for these guys, imho.
The NYY prospect hype machine has always been a mix of front office fairytale-making and a superstar obsessed media. It may have helped them sell a mediocre prospect as something bigger for trades in the past. But it seems like other organizations have long figured out this Yankee ruse years ago. Now the hype circus seems to be detrimental to their prospect development overall; like you are saying. Couldn’t agree more.
They do need to put more focus on playing smart baseball. You would hope after that total embarrassment of a performance in the 2024 World Series (and the way the Dodgers mocked them for their slacker behavior) that they would put more of an emphasis on cleaning up fundamentals up-and-down the organization. But I suppose that even if that were true; we won’t see any sound results for years to come.
That 2024 World Series was such an utter embarrassment that I wish I could have canceled my season tickets for 2025 thereafter. But they cunningly had me locked in a multi-year contract beforehand. So instead of a being a superfan who goes to 60-70 games per year; I find myself begrudgingly selling my tickets on the second-hand market for pennies on the dollar. And I swear, if they played hard and smart in that World Series, but still managed to lose; I wouldn’t be feeling this way about them. Those 2024 Yankees had an easy path to the World Series via playing AL Central teams that they basically owned all regular season. Then they got exposed and it all felt so fraudulent.
The minor league season is close to over. Its too late in the year to send him down.
Yes. I realize that, as I said in my follow-up comment. Guess we will chalk it up to pointless hindsight.
Cashman wants him in there everyday, no matter what. On the super rare days he doesn’t start, Boone is likely under mandate to get him in there late in the game. Cashman has long been desperate for his own Jeter.
That will be Lombard
They need to move volpe to second next season
Lombard will be worse of a hitter then Volpe.
Not what the experts say
Doesn’t he have Aaron Judge?
He really is a second baseman
The Horse getting some reps in, I like it!
The rest of baseball thanks you
He’s fragile. Very fragile.
Volpe did come into the Sunday night game in the 8th for defense and fielded cleanly his only chance.
Volpe is a disappointing prospect and at this point I’m not sure he counts as a prospect anymore. He basically is what he is. He has some raw power, but he can’t hit for average, he’s incredibly streaky and his defense is very hit or miss/up or down, etc. just like his hitting.
He is a deeply mediocre, very streaky player who has talent, but isn’t consistent.
He is what we are seeing him to be. Make of that what you will.
I love the Yankees. I have barely watched this season. Its not the worst Yankees season ever, but it’s been rough and Volpe is one of those elements that epitomizes what is so frustrating about the Yankees organization at this point.
We need more Aaron Judge/ Bernie Williams, etc. level prospects and fewer Volpes / Voits / etc.
In short- the Yankees are a broken clock on prospects- yeah, one or two basically pan out, but most are flash in the pans that aren’t worth anywhere near the hype and their careers are unremarkable at best.
I think you’re being too critical. Vilpe hot a wall in his 3rd season. I’m his first 2 he ranked 5th in defW behind Swanson, Tovar, Lindor and Witt. Overall WAR he ranked 12th. Give him a chance to adjust to the leagues adjustments to him.
Let me get this straight you have a first rnd highly touted prospect that is struggling. You need more highly touted prospects that workout. Let me tell you a seceret. Every team in MLB needs more first round picks that are stars. What is it 40% of the first round picks don’t pan out.
Just because you are the Yankees doesn’t mean you don’t have to have the failures every team has. Volpe might figure it out he might bounce around and be a sub for a few teams then be out of baseball.
Just so you know you will have at least one more first round pick that fails. Even though some believe it that NY on your cap doesn’t mean players won’t fail.
Compassrose: That’s not entirely an accurate depiction. If it were that he was simply a prospect that didn’t pan out, it would’ve been more tolerable. It’s that the Yankees bypassed several top tier SS players while using sub par SS replacements for years to field the position because they told us how great Volpe was going to be.
This is a very public organizational failure. Then they moved the goalposts to suggest his defense was his primary attribute and made his lackluster offense tolerable – until he turned into a complete butcher this season.
They’ve done this repeatedly, instead of going after the right players, and it usually ends up costing them more than if they just acquired the right guys.
Off-season trade spencer Jones for jacob wilson, who says no?
A’s laugh before hanging up.
Agreed.
As they probably should
More coddling from Boone. Also, did the Yankees really say Volpe was the next Jeter? Terrible, you can’t compare him to one of the greatest hitters of all-time. Jomboy gets chewed out by Boone by even suggesting a few days off for Volpe.
Anyone who has watched Volpe in the field knows he’s been overrated since his first season and is the poster child for those like me who don’t rely on saberstats. This season at least once a game he looks lost at short.
So all the other statistical evaluations for the every other SS in the league were valid except his, huh?
Knicks, when you look at Trevor Story and his metrics, it’s just another example. Those watching Boston day in and day out appreciate him at short much more than those that simply run a person through the IBM.
Story has provided roughly league average defense and hitting. You appreciate him because he’s been healthy while the Red Sox haven’t had a steady shortstop in a few years.
@knicks
Where did he even imply that? Seems to me he was dismissing the saber stats for every player.
I remember the year Volpe was drafted. His coach at Delbarton was a Yankee lover. They put so much on this kid. He was not a first round talent. They ballyhooed him all the way through the minors. He even lived near Jeter’s parents. Just a ridiculous amount of attention for a guy who is a decent player but not what they made him out to be.
He’s hit the wall hard this year. Having a quality player breathing down his neck may help. I don’t love him like Boone does (nobody does) but I do agree that he still has a good chance to figure it out and be a quality player. If not Lombard is coming up hard behind him so he may end up off the team or playing 2nd in two years.
I think Volpe might be a bust. Trade him get whatever you can now.
Mercenary, his value has plummeted so perhaps in a package with others he can be dealt but what do you expect to get for him right now if today started the trade season? He’s probably worth more to the team as injury security next spring.
Or…they could go all Luis Robert on him & hold him until he has no value.
Robert was signed to a big deal that complicated matters. While I don’t think Volpe has much value, between injuries, high cost and the White Sox overvaluing him, Robert was then never getting traded.
To this point in his career, Anthony Volpe is Paul DeJong. Not a great trajectory
Gotta hate a ~2 WAR player!!
Volpe should retire and work for USPS….Next Day Air lol
It’s funny, he doesn’t look like an Aaron.
Volpe has talent. A hitting coach with a different philosophy could turn him around IF Volpe is willing to buy into change. He needs it.
Jeterian defense shouldn’t matter in the bronx.
Typical Yankees fans, one bad season and they want to take the guy out back and dump him. He’s super young and was tasked with a huge role in NY. He also has won a GG and was a finalist last year. Give the kid a break. And honestly who else are you going to go get?
Giving any credence to being a GG finalist is being ridiculous. It’s almost like they find one player per team just so no one gets left out. (Gotta at least say “NYY SS name here” was a finalist, cuz its tradition.)
Well this isn’t the all star game where everyone NEEDS to have a participant lol. So let’s not go that far. The fact is he was a finalist last season and won the award in ‘23. While his defensive stats and offensive stats have taken a drop this season I’m not sure replacing him is the answer. Again it’s one season and he’s 25. And he’s not the only reason this team is underperforming or living up to the standards of a NY fan. This team has glaring issues other than their SS currently.
I will side with you in area….some players seem to make that list due to name lol. Jeter won 5 GG’s and was a pretty bad defensive shortstop. This is not the argument for Volpe. He was pretty good in ‘23 and deserved that award. However when A-Rod joined the Yankees he should have been the SS, minus the whole steroids thing he was by far a much better SS than Jeter
This isn’ta typical Yankee fans thing. This is a competitive team needing to win every game kind of thing and he isn’t helping. There are rational Yankee fans (the ones who actually pay attention and don’t overreact to every slump), but this is different.
They should be going with whoever has the hot bat right now and that happens to be Caballero. like i’ve said in a previous post, Volpe needs some confidence and looks like a deer in headlights at times, which is exactly when you send someone to Triple A. There are many success stories of young players making it back to the MLB and having great careers. It would probably only be for a couple of weeks.
Good points and on any other team I’d agree with you. With the Yankees if Volpe was sent down they would move on from him unfortunate to say. They havent paid him big yet and will look for a bigger star.
There aren’t really any available through trade or free agency, so they’re kind of stuck with him until/if Lombard gets the call
True, and I don’t see that happening this season. They have caballaro now. If the choose to move on from Volpe or move him to 2nd at some point they will look for a star. And that’s not going to be Lombard. He’s having a rough year yes but I think saying you are stuck with him is a bit premature. I believe he’s going to be fine. He’s enduring his sophomore slump in year 3 lol
Boone: Yankees still consider Volpe starting shortstop
Swanz: I still consider Ana de Armas a realistic dating possibility
OK he’s a starter.
What team?
Just Fire this idiot already!!!
I think NYY are over-thinking this. At worst, Volpe is league-average. The NYY can’t afford to demote him.
Sure, they can with Caballero filling in for him. The kid needs some kind of reset. If he can’t handle the media heat, then he needs to grow thicker skin to have a long career in NY.
LMFAO…Where’s all the torpedo bat talk now?
50 homeruns between Grisham and Jazz. How do you like dem torpedos?
And what are those batting averages?
Beginning of the year you would have thought Volpe could walk on water. Oh well…
MLB league batting average is .247.
So they are just average. Gotcha…
I don’t even think Grisham uses a torpedo bat.
Right. Because batting average is the end-all, be-all to evaluate performance. If you’re gonna throw shade, bring some ammo, man.
I think what you see is what you’re getting with Volpe. He’s had over 1600 plate appearances. He’s had enough time to establish who he is.