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CLEVELAND — Three days of mostly poor at-bats for Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe were spilling into a fourth. His first two times up in Wednesday’s 8-4 win over the Guardians, he hit two groundballs with exit velocities that would have fit right in for soft-tossing left-hander Ryan Yarbrough. The first was an 89.6 mph bouncer to second base that was bobbled for a run-scoring error in the second inning, then a slow roller to short in the fourth that was just 70.4 mph off the bat.
These plate appearances continued a slump that’s two weeks old, one that began with Volpe mixing in a few hard-hit outs. But now he had one hit and one walk in his last 24 trips to the plate, and his batting average had dipped into the .180s.
Adding to Volpe’s frustration, he made a bad throw to first base on an infield single to gift the Guardians a runner in scoring position. The miscue didn’t cost the Yankees any runs and it was just Volpe’s second in 20 games — and first since his season debut — but it evoked memories from 2025 when he led all American League shortstops with 17 errors.
His day did get better.
His third time up, Volpe laced a double to left field that brought in a run that had the Yankees ahead 5-3. After that, he worked a walk, his 11th in 20 games since his season started on May 13, after he opened on the injured list and then was optioned to Triple-A for a week.
Volpe’s final at-bat was another poor one, a routine groundball to third, but his 1-for-4 with a double, walk and ribbie brought some reinforcement to his belief that he can become a more consistently impactful offensive player than he has been since his 2023 rookie season.
“You can see what the scoreboard says, but I have to look past that,” Yankees hitting coach James Rowson said. “When I look at Anthony, I think he’s grown. I look at his swings. His swings are far more direct in the way they’re working. You see where the thought process is, more of a line-drive type approach. There hasn’t been a whole bunch of balls where he’s been swinging underneath them.”
There was a lot of uppercut swing-and-missing in Volpe’s first three seasons.
“Exactly,” Rowson added. “But that’s what I call the evolution of a hitter. Every season teaches you something. He learned from last season and hopefully soon you start to see more balls he’s crushing fall.”
He’s not crushing like he did last year. His exit velocity for the season so far is a career-low 85.7 mph. That’s also a sizable drop from his 89.3 mph last season.
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Results do matter, too. The Yankees already made Jose Caballero their starting shortstop once this season, when he went from filling in for Volpe to taking the job outright.
The Yankees could go that route again.
That’s how Volpe ended up being optioned after his rehab assignment, which was his final step to returning from offseason labrum surgery. Volpe’s quick return to the Yankees following the option only occurred after Caballero broke a finger, resulting in 10 days on the injured list. Other injuries kept Volpe with the Yankees, for two games as a backup to Caballero initially and then as unofficial starting shortstop again.
Manager Aaron Boone has been saying both deserve to play, but Caballero’s versatility to play infield coupled with right fielder Aaron Judge’s fractured rib have resulted in Volpe getting 11 of the last 14 starts.
“Obviously, being able to move Jose around a little bit gives you some added flexibility there,” Boone said. “They both in a lot of ways deserve to be playing there and I’ll continue to just try and do what’s best for the team.”
Because Caballero stood out in the field, at the plate and on the bases as the starting shortstop for the first month with Volpe on the IL and in the minors, the Yankees could go back to him at some point, perhaps even very soon.
Caballero’s stats certainly are better. He’s hitting .258 with five homers, 18 RBI, 15 stolen bases and a .703 OPS in 56 games, 44 starts at shortstop, 39 before Volpe’s season debut.
Designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton is expected to return from a calf strain in the next week or so, and outfielder Jasson Dominguez likely will be back from a shoulder sprain soon, maybe by this weekend. When those moves are made, the Yankees could make room for them one at a time by optioning outfielder Spencer Jones, super utility player Max Schuemann … or Volpe, especially if his struggles continue.
“I can only control what I can control,” Volpe said. “With everything, I’ve just gotta to grind through it, but I feel like I’m in a good spot.”
Volpe’s time with the Yankees may be limited regardless of performance.
By next season No. 1 prospect George Lombard Jr. could be the Yankees’ starting shortstop, maybe by Opening Day. He’s just 21 and already in Triple-A after starting the season with Double-A Somerset. Promoted on May 1, he hit just .184 in his first 27 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but he’s batting .297 over his last 10 after a 2-for-5 night against Lehigh Valley on Wednesday.
“Even early on when he wasn’t, the underlying stuff was good,” Boone said. “He was walking a ton and squaring the ball up quite a bit. It has been good to see him get some more consistent results the last couple of weeks. My understanding is he’s playing really well.”
Defensively, Lombard has committed six errors in 167 chances across 45 games at shortstop for a .964 fielding percentage that is a drop from his outstanding .984 last season, but opposing scouts are united in saying he’s an elite fielder. They also say he has tremendous offensive upside and clearly is the shortstop of the Yankees’ future.
Lombard is unlikely to be called up this year, but continued struggles by Volpe could speed up that timeline if the Yankees decide he’s ready, even with Caballero on the roster.
Outside speculation is that Volpe could be a fit as the second baseman long-term with Jazz Chisholm headed for free agency after the 2026 season and a long shot to return because he’ll probably get a big-money contract elsewhere for more than the Yankees will be willing to pay.
For this year, Boone continues to say he likes both of his shortstops. After raving early in the season how well Caballero handled the position defensively, he’s now talking about Volpe’s fielding.
“Excellent,” Boone said. “I feel like he’s made half a dozen or so really outstanding plays. I think he’s been really good.”
Boone also will argue that Volpe’s shortstop play last season wasn’t nearly as poor as his stats indicated.
“I think he had a rough three or four weeks of defense last year,” Boone said. “If you look at August and September, he was very much in line with who he was when he won a Gold Glove (as a rookie). But that stretch where we were losing some games and he wasn’t playing his best defensively, that becomes the focal point (with fans and media). But if you’re honest with yourself and you watch how he played in August and September, he was very much in line with what we’re seeing right now out there.
“Volpe and Cabby, I’ve got a ton of confidence in both of them and their ability to play at a high level out there. We need to keep doing that, but I like what I’m seeing.”
The Yankees need more offense from Volpe. He averaged 17 homers in his first three seasons, but he’s a career .221 hitter with a 25 percent strikeout rate. He never walked much either until this season. It’s a small sample, but his 14.1 percent walk rate is close to double his 7.5 percent career mark.
But so far Volpe’s season can be broken into two even segments:
He hit .281 with nine walks in 40 plate appearances in his first 10 games, then .114 with three walks in 38 plate appearances in his next 10.
At this point, it’s too soon to know if Volpe’s season will end up more like his first 10 games, the second 10 or something in the middle.
Rowson has an opinion.
“In totality, early on you saw some walks, you saw some balls that were driven,” he said. “I still think even within the last couple weeks, there have been some balls that were smoked. There were some balls on the last homestand that were smoked, they were playing him right where they went.
“He was hitting some balls 100 miles an hour or something in that range, and they just didn’t fall, You can’t make them fall. But at the same time you have to build off of that knowing that you’re one swing away, one good game away.”
His last week mostly has been very poor.
In 26 plate appearances since June, he’s put the ball in play 19 times. In this stretch, his exit velocity reached 90 mph only five times and he was under 80 seven times.
His first at-bats in his two games in Cleveland this week were dreadful. Coming off the bench Monday, he was 0-for-2 with a weak grounder to third and a strikeout swinging when he chased a splitter that was way low. On Tuesday, he was 0-for-4 with a strikeout swinging, a strikeout looking, a first-pitch popup to short on a grooved pitch and a foul out to the catcher on a thigh-high in the middle of the plate.
“Couple bad games,” Volpe said.
Volpe isn’t discouraged.
“You have to have the perspective that it’s such a long season,” he said. “Especially for me, I’ve felt like I really haven’t got going yet.”
Rowson still has hope that this will be Volpe’s best season.
“I have to look past his batting average and look at what the work looks like,” he said. “There are some balls that he’s driving and they’re not falling now. Honestly, if you get five of those balls to fall, it’s a different story.
“Then all of a sudden the dominoes start falling in the right direction for you.”
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