Alexander Wilson
The Yankees entered this season knowing the shortstop position was going to be a gap for the first few weeks. What they did not fully anticipate was how wide that gap would become. Jose Caballero has played 12 games as the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees and is hitting .125/.186/.150 with a 1 wRC+, which means he has been 99 percent worse than the average major league hitter through the first two weeks of the season. Three runs, one RBI, five stolen bases. The speed is there. Everything else has been absent.
Caballero has always been a backup, and this run is confirming exactly that. His value was never tied to his bat. It was tied to his glove, his legs, and his energy as a utility piece who could fill in for a few weeks without completely sinking a lineup. Two weeks of starts has stretched that profile past its limits, and every game Volpe misses now feels like a direct cost rather than a manageable temporary arrangement.
What Cashman Said
Before Friday’s series opener against the Rays, general manager Brian Cashman addressed the situation directly with the New York Post. Asked whether Volpe would return to the starting shortstop role when healthy, Cashman did not overthink it. “That’s always been the plan,” he said. “But ultimately that’ll be the manager’s call.”
He also outlined the ramp-up process Volpe needs to complete before appearing in a game. “Looking to deploy him soon,” Cashman said. “We obviously want to get his legs under him. He’s been getting a lot of live at-bats and then with Trajekt, you can close the gap on stuff like that too. But obviously the in-game defensive stuff and building your foundation, getting his spring training behind him that way. Typically you want to get like 55 at-bats of spring training for an everyday position player and then build him up safely with the defense from three to five to seven innings, then obviously nine innings. Then we’ll find a time to slot him in.”
Aaron Boone added that Volpe’s workload during his preparation has been intense even without game action. “He’s taken a ton of at-bats, taken a ton of reps in the field,” Boone said. “They wear those Catapult monitors that track their workload, his workload’s probably higher than if he was playing games, knowing him. Hopefully he hits the ground running with his rehab, whenever that begins.”
Volpe himself set the tone on the final day of spring camp, saying he felt “as healthy as I’ve ever been,” which was precisely what made the waiting harder. A player who feels good but cannot play is a particular kind of frustrating, and Volpe is not someone who handles forced patience well.
The Real Question When Volpe Returns
The shortstop situation right now is Caballero’s problem to manage. But the larger conversation about this position was already complicated before he struggled, because Volpe himself has not been a reliable offensive presence through his first three years in the major leagues.
He posted a 83 wRC+ last season, hitting .212/.272/.391 with 19 home runs and 72 RBIs. His OPS has not cleared .750 in any of his three full seasons. The labrum injury that required surgery in October almost certainly affected his performance throughout 2025, which is the most charitable read of his numbers, and Cashman has been careful to include that as context when discussing expectations for this year.
But Volpe’s offensive ceiling has always been defined by a tension between two approaches he has never reconciled. When he sells out for power, the contact rate drops and the strikeout numbers climb. When he prioritizes contact, the power disappears. His best offensive weeks come when both are working at the same time, which has happened in stretches but never sustained itself for a full season.
The Gold Glove he won in 2023 was real and reflected a player who could anchor the position defensively even if the bat needed development. The defensive regression last season, which turned him from one of baseball’s best shortstops to one of its worst, is directly tied to the labrum. If the surgery resolved the issue cleanly, the glove should return to something close to its previous level. That alone would make him a significant upgrade over Caballero regardless of what the offense does.
The Yankees need both, though. A healthy Volpe who plays Gold Glove defense and hits .220 with some power is a manageable shortstop on a contending team. A healthy Volpe who finally puts the two offensive approaches together for a sustained stretch is something considerably better. Whether this is the year that happens is the actual question worth watching once he takes the field again.
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