Which brings us to Anthony Volpe and the club\u2019s shortstop position.<\/p>\n
For several years, the club has felt Volpe \u2014 the 2019 first-round pick and one of the better prospects in the sport \u2014 has had more to offer than the below-average numbers on the back of his baseball card. <\/p>\n
For several years, the team has insisted that it has faith in Volpe, who has not blossomed as hoped.<\/p>\n
That faith publicly remains. <\/p>\n
Manager Aaron Boone said he expects Volpe to \u201cbe a good player for us.\u201d Cashman offered: \u201cDo I believe in Anthony Volpe? The answer is yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
And yet this week at the Winter Meetings, the general manager also gently pried open a theoretical door toward a shortstop competition.<\/p>\n
The Yankees do not expect Volpe, who underwent shoulder surgery<\/a> to repair a partially torn labrum, back before May<\/a>. <\/p>\n Barring a stunning upgrade such as Bo Bichette (a free agent), CJ Abrams or Corey Seager (subjects of trade talk), the natural in-house replacement is Jos\u00e9 Caballero, who impressed in 40 games after the trade deadline last season.<\/p>\n Yes, Boone and Cashman reiterated, their trust in Volpe remains. <\/p>\n And yet, Cashman also brought up Grisham \u2014 a player who entered 2025 as an afterthought and whose play demanded that he become an everyday option \u2014 when speaking about Caballero.<\/p>\n Caballero, who has stolen 93 bases the past two seasons and whose bat rose with the platform after the trade from the Rays (slashing .266\/.372\/.456 in pinstripes), could have a month-plus to assert himself.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cYou can never predict somebody\u2019s journey, somebody\u2019s impact,\u201d Cashman said in Orlando, Fla. \u201c[Volpe and Caballero are] both quality players in their own right, but \u2026 I still believe everything that we felt about [Volpe] prior to his surgery, and I\u2019m happy we have Cabby as well. So I have no idea where things will go.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, the game separates it all, the men from the boys. It dictates who should and who shouldn\u2019t be playing over the course of time from the roster that the manager has. People continue to earn their playing time or they don\u2019t. \u2026 If it\u2019s competition off of guys on the club, may the best man win and keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n Such a situation presupposes that Caballero would run with the shortstop job as Volpe recovers, so it is in the realm of the speculative. <\/p>\n But ever since Volpe beat Oswald Peraza for the job during spring training in 2023, the Yankees have not spoken about any kind of competition at shortstop.<\/p>\n Volpe, the native New Jerseyan who grew up idolizing Derek Jeter, was supposed to be the spiritual heir to his hero. <\/p>\n After that spring training star turn, he excelled defensively in 2023 and won a Gold Glove but struck out too much, batted just .209 and hit for surprising power (21 homers) as a rookie.<\/p>\n In his second year, he sacrificed some of that pop for contact, brought up his average (.243) but still finished with just about the same OPS. Last year, the adjustments continued and he tried again to swing with more authority. The same hitter using different approaches has posted .666, .657 and .663 OPSes, respectively.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got there a little bit of a different way each year, but the ultimate [goal] is, we got to get that number to go up, and there\u2019s a lot of different ways to do that,\u201d Boone said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s getting on base more or hitting for a higher average, whether it\u2019s being more consistent on the power front. He\u2019s got a lot of ability. He\u2019s really talented. Some of his best moments have been in the most crucial time. I think of the \u201924 postseason, where he was so good.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I do feel like it\u2019s in there.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the May 3 dive that hurt his shoulder last season, Volpe owned a .768 OPS in 33 games. His play, on both sides of the game, declined significantly before a September uptick that coincided with a second cortisone injection in that shoulder. It is possible that Volpe was ready to turn a corner before the health setback.<\/p>\n If Volpe wants to prove as much, his mission will be delayed. He is not expected to be able to swing until mid-February and likely will not be able to dive until mid-April.<\/p>\n Whenever he is ready, he likely will not be returning to the same kind of job security to which he had become accustomed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Cashman & Co. have plenty of time to surprise and pull off major and minor moves. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[1992,4701,146352,363,369,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-343531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-aaron-boone","9":"tag-anthony-volpe","10":"tag-brian-cashman","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343531","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=343531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Anthony-Volpe.jpg\")
Anthony Volpe, who underwent offseason shoulder surgery, is not expected to be ready to return until May. AP<\/p>\n![\"Jos\u00e9](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Jose-Caballero.jpg\")
Jos\u00e9 Caballero, who impressed in 40 games after the trade deadline last season, likely will be the starting shortstop until at least Anthony Volpe returns in May, and maybe longer, if he does well. Getty Images<\/p>\n