BOSTON \u2014 New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before Friday night\u2019s game that he does not expect shortstop Anthony Volpe to start any of the three games against the Red Sox after receiving a cortisone injection in his left shoulder on Wednesday. On Thursday, Boone revealed for the first time that Volpe has played through a partially torn labrum this season, which the club\u2019s medical team determined was an \u201cold injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
But speaking at Fenway Park on Friday, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said he could not definitively say whether offseason surgery for Volpe was being considered, but they are not expecting that outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of right now, no, but I wouldn\u2019t rule it out, either,\u201d Cashman said. \u201cThey\u2019ll just repeat imaging at the end of the year and see where he\u2019s at. Right now, there\u2019s no surgery recommended. There\u2019s not even an IL (stint) recommended. They\u2019ll revisit everything and make decisions based on how things are and how he\u2019s feeling at that time because, clearly, there\u2019ll be more physical experiences when he comes back and starts playing again for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cashman said the 24-year-old\u2019s shoulder is \u201cclearly something he\u2019s been bothered by.\u201d However, similar to what Boone said on Thursday, Cashman stated that he was unsure of the effect it had on Volpe\u2019s performance, calling it a \u201cgray area.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s some internal belief that Volpe\u2019s shoulder may be a cause for his defense slipping.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our internal stuff, he gets to a lot more balls,\u201d Cashman said. \u201cI think the external metrics don\u2019t (give him) credit for. But, yes, he\u2019s not defending as well as he\u2019s certainly capable of this year. Who knows how much that shoulder has been a part of that process. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s watered down him on the offensive and defensive side, but I think he\u2019s still really capable of being a quality, above-average, regular shortstop in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing that isn\u2019t a gray area, Cashman believes Volpe is the Yankees\u2019 shortstop of the future, despite three consecutive years of underperformance offensively. This is the first season that Volpe has graded out as a negative defender after winning the Gold Glove Award in his rookie season and being a finalist in Year 2. Volpe has amassed 0.6 fWAR in Year 3, which is the second-lowest among 25 qualified shortstops in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I think he\u2019s a good player,\u201d Cashman said when directly asked if he views Volpe as the shortstop in 2026 and beyond. \u201cI think he\u2019s got a lot of abilities that are positive, and, this year notwithstanding, he\u2019s had a tough stretch. I think he\u2019s someone that we can count on and we believe in, but acknowledging at the same time, this isn\u2019t the season that we expected or he expected, but that doesn\u2019t change our viewpoint of what he\u2019s capable of. I think he\u2019s a really talented guy and I think he has a chance to be a positive impact on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boone believes that positive impact could come as soon as when he\u2019s back in the lineup. He thinks Volpe could have a similar postseason that he had in 2024, when he finished with a 138 wRC+. However, neither Boone nor Cashman have said that Volpe will return to being the starting shortstop when he\u2019s healthy. Jos\u00e9 Caballero has started in place of Volpe and will continue to do so in his absence.<\/p>\n
When asked to divulge what gave him confidence in Volpe long term, Cashman did not point to any specifics but rather platitudes that have not mounted to much success three years into the shortstop\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s young, he\u2019s talented, I think he\u2019s done a lot of good things, and obviously he\u2019s had some tough times, too,\u201d Cashman said.<\/p>\n
(Photo: Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before Friday night\u2019s game that he does not expect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,369,99],"class_list":["post-153704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}