{"id":136217,"date":"2025-09-11T22:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T22:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/136217\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T22:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T22:12:09","slug":"anthony-volpe-playing-through-partial-labrum-tear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/136217\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Volpe Playing Through Partial Labrum Tear"},"content":{"rendered":"

3:15pm: Boone spoke to the media before tonight\u2019s game and provided more details, per Brendan Kuty of The Athletic<\/a> and Bryan Hoch<\/a> of MLB.com<\/a>. Boone confirmed the report of the cortisone shot and said Volpe has a small labrum tear in his shoulder. When the injury was discovered in May, they believed it was an old injury that he could play through. He has since aggravated it multiple times, including on Sunday. He also had a cortisone shot during the All-Star break, per Kuty<\/a>. The Yanks don\u2019t believe he needs an IL stint now. He will have another MRI after the season.<\/p>\n

11:05am:\u00a0Anthony Volpe<\/a> has been the Yankees\u2019 regular shortstop for close to three years now. Lately, he has struggled enough that Jos\u00e9 Caballero<\/a> has taken some playing time. It\u2019s possible that health is playing a role in Volpe\u2019s downturn. He injured his left shoulder back in early May<\/a>. Today, Joel Sherman of The New York Post<\/a> reports that the shoulder discomfort has lingered since then and Volpe received a cortisone shot in that shoulder yesterday.<\/p>\n

At the time of that injury, Volpe said he heard a \u201cpop\u201d in his shoulder but quickly felt better. \u201cIt happened quick and it was scary, but after that, I felt OK and I felt like I had my strength,\u201d Volpe said at the time. \u201cI\u2019ve never really had anything else pop or dislocate or anything like that, so I have nothing to compare it to.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of Sherman\u2019s report today, Greg Joyce of The New York Post<\/a> adds that the Yankees have consistently downplayed the shoulder injury even though Volpe is usually wrapped up in ice after most games. Just yesterday, manager Aaron Boone<\/a> brushed off the problem, per Chris Kirschner of The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think early on after that, maybe a little bit,\u201d the skipper said, when asked if Volpe\u2019s shoulder has been impacting his performance. \u201cI think it\u2019s something that\u2019s also improved over the course of the year. I feel like, even lately, it\u2019s been in as good of a place as it\u2019s been. I don\u2019t necessarily think that\u2019s the case, but he\u2019s also a very tough kid and a gamer. I don\u2019t think so, but I guess shouldn\u2019t rule it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

As noted by Sherman, there\u2019s a stark contrast between Volpe\u2019s pre- and post-pop numbers. On May 4th, he had a .233\/.326\/.442 batting line. That translated to a 114 wRC+, indicating he was 14% better than league average at that point in the season. Since then, he has a .197\/.248\/.378 line and 70 wRC+.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also possible that the injury is impacting Volpe defensively. He was credited with 15 Defensive Runs Saved in 2023 and six last year but is at just one here in 2025. Outs Above Average is even more notable. That metric gave Volpe a +1 grade in 2023 and +14 last year but has dropped him all the way to -9 here in 2025. Volpe made eight throwing errors in 2023 and nine last year but already has 13 in 2025, in a smaller sample of playing time.<\/p>\n

Despite the declining numbers, Boone has stuck by Volpe. A couple of weeks ago<\/a>, the skipper said that he still considered Volpe to be the club\u2019s shortstop while Caballero was considered a \u201c10th man\u201d who could bounce around to various positions in a utility capacity.<\/p>\n

More recently, it\u2019s possible there\u2019s been a shift. Caballero has started in place of Volpe in two of the past five games. It\u2019s possible the cortisone shot leads to Volpe missing some more time, as players usually require a few days\u2019 rest after receiving such injections.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, it\u2019s somewhat encouraging that Volpe\u2019s struggles have a possible explanation. On the other hand, it\u2019s a less than ideal situation at this time of year when every game is meaningful. The Yanks currently hold a Wild Card spot but they are in a tight battle with clubs like the Red Sox, Mariners, Rangers, Guardians, Royals and Rays. The Yanks are also surely hoping to chase down the Blue Jays for the division lead, currently trailing by just three games.<\/p>\n

Sending Volpe to the injured list or simply sitting him for a few games could perhaps help his shoulder woes a bit but that would leave the club a bit thinner at shortstop as they play meaningful games. There would also be the risk of Volpe getting rusty after a layoff and not having time to get into a better groove.<\/p>\n

For now, it seems Caballero could benefit from a bit more playing time. He has a solid .239\/.345\/.413 line since being acquired at the deadline but he has a career .226\/.313\/.335 slash and 89 wRC+. Even if his hitting is subpar, his glovework is good and he\u2019s one of the top base stealers in the majors. If Volpe does require a stint on the IL, the Yanks could perhaps recall Braden Shewmake<\/a> to serve as a glove-first backup to Caballero.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of John Jones, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3:15pm: Boone spoke to the media before tonight\u2019s game and provided more details, per Brendan Kuty of The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[11000,64,63,34470,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-136217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-anthony-volpe","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-jose-caballero","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}