Yanks believe Volpe will bounce back with shoulder repaired

The sounds of packing tape being pulled across boxes hummed in the background as Anthony Volpe spoke in the center of the Yankees’ clubhouse following their final game of 2025, the shortstop forecasting “a lot of sleepless nights” ahead as he wrestled with the team’s playoff ouster.

Regarding his own performance, Volpe said there would be “a lot of work to be done” – and that was before an MRI revealed the full extent of his left labrum tear, which was more significant than the club initially believed and required arthroscopic surgery.

For the first time in four seasons, Volpe will not be the Yankees’ Opening Day shortstop, his rehab opening an opportunity for José Caballero, Oswaldo Cabrera or someone else. While the Yankees do not expect Volpe to return before May, they still envision him as their shortstop of the present and future.

“Do I believe in Anthony Volpe? The answer is yes,” general manager Brian Cashman said.

The Yankees’ first-round pick (30th overall) in the 2019 Draft, Volpe earned an Opening Day nod with a torrid spring in 2023 and won a Gold Glove Award during his rookie campaign. He’s been as much of a constant as anyone in pinstripes, posting games-played totals of 159, 160 and 153 in his young career.

But Volpe’s bat has lagged behind expectations. Through 1,886 plate appearances, Volpe has collected 82 doubles, 52 homers and 70 stolen bases, owning a career .662 OPS and an 84 OPS+ through three seasons. That latter figure indicates his offense has been 16% below league average.

“We’ve got to get that number to go up,” manager Aaron Boone said. “There’s a lot of different ways to do that, whether it’s getting on base more and hitting for a higher average, or whether it’s being more consistent on the power front.”

Volpe’s defense also took a step back in 2025, as he was charged with 19 errors – tied with Trevor Story of the Red Sox (19) for the third-most among Major League shortstops. Only the Reds’ Elly De La Cruz (26) and the Nationals’ CJ Abrams (22) had more. Volpe finished with minus-6 outs above average after posting 13 OAA in 2024.

“For the noise around him this year and the struggles he went through defensively in the middle of the season,” Boone said, “I think it’s really important to know how good he was the final two months, which is more in line -- defensively speaking -- with who he’s been these first few years.”

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The left shoulder injury Volpe sustained diving for a ground ball on May 3 certainly didn’t help. He carried a .786 OPS into that game and required multiple cortisone injections to play through the remainder of the season.

Yet overall, Volpe’s year-by-year statistics have been remarkably similar, inviting temptation to invoke Bill Parcells’ oft-repeated quote: “You are what your record says you are.”

The Yankees don’t subscribe to that theory, pointing to Volpe’s age (he’ll turn 25 in April) and strong work ethic as reasons to believe better days are ahead. They also point to his 2024 postseason performance, which included a memorable World Series grand slam.

“He’s had a lot of success offensively, but he’s obviously had a lot of valleys, too,” Boone said. “The challenge for us and for him is going to be to shore up those things to make him more consistent.”

As an example of a success story, Cashman pointed to Trent Grisham, who “was supposed to be a role player for us” before belting a career-high 34 homers in 2025. That earned him a qualifying offer, raising his salary to $22.025 million from $5 million.

“You can never predict someone’s journey, somebody’s impact,” Cashman said.

Could 2026 be the year we talk about Volpe’s breakout? He’s expected to resume swinging a bat in mid-February, though his spring will be modified. He’ll be unable to dive on the repaired shoulder until mid-April, when he’ll likely be playing in Minor League rehab games.

Once he returns to the Bronx, Volpe should have an opportunity to validate the Yankees’ faith, though that may depend on how Caballero or another option performs in his absence.

“I believe in Volpe,” Cashman said. “And when he comes back, I still believe everything that we felt about him before his surgery. I’m happy we have Cabby as well. The game separates the men from the boys, and dictates who should and shouldn’t be playing over the course of time.”