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BALTIMORE — Dressed in designer sweats from head to toe, Jose Caballero looked like he was headed for a late-night workout standing at his locker after the Yankees beat the Orioles 6-2 on Tuesday night at Oriole Park.
The Yankees shortstop held up his right hand, then he bent his middle finger back and forth, the one wrapped with a compression band. Then he wiggled it as fast as he could to show the injury that landed him on the 10-day injured list, in his view, is minor.
“Ten days, that’s the max I’m taking,” Caballero vowed. “I feel like I could be back sooner, but we don’t want to take a risk. It’s early in the season.”
It had been an exhausting and stressful 24 hours for Caballero, who drove a rental car 200 miles from Baltimore to New York after Monday night’s game and then returned Tuesday.
His short visit to Manhattan was for an MRI, then an exam with a team doctor and a hand specialist. That’s when Caballero discovered he had fractured a finger sliding headfirst into first base on a pickoff throw in the ninth inning of last Sunday’s game in Milwaukee.
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The fracture wasn’t what he expected to hear, but the news could have been worse. There was no ligament tear, which could take up to 10 weeks to heal.
Caballero is used to dealing with broken fingers.
“This is my fifth, but I have repeat (breaks on some) fingers,” he said.
How many from fights?
“None,” the outgoing Panama native responded with a big smile. “That’s surprising!”
Caballero tried talking the Yankees into keeping him on the active roster — “I did my best, for sure,” he said — but his argument was a lost cause because, under doctor’s orders, he’ll be shut down from hitting and throwing for 5-to-7 days.
“I can field, so you will see me out there fielding balls, moving my legs and running to keep in shape,” Caballero said.
If Caballero is back after 10 days, he’ll return a week from Friday for the start of a series at Yankee Stadium against the only American League club with a better record than the Yankees (27-16), the AL East-leading Rays (28-13).
Anthony Volpe is back from Triple-A to play shortstop for the next week, but according to manager Aaron Boone, “the expectation” is that Caballero will be the starter again once he’s off the IL.
“Oh, I didn’t know that, but it means a lot,” Caballero said. “I want to be in there.”
At the beginning of the season, the Yankees expected Caballero to play shortstop only until Volpe returned from his offseason labrum surgery, then return to his 2025 super-utility role.
That was still in play a few weeks ago, GM Brian Cashman stated. But when the Yankees had a great first month with Caballero contributing a lot at the plate, on the bases and at short, they opted not to mess with success.
Two Sundays ago, when Volpe wrapped up a 20-day rehab assignment, he was optioned to Triple-A with Max Schuemann remaining in a backup infielder role.
In 41 games, 39 as a starter at shortstop, Caballero is hitting .259 with four homers, 13 RBIs, a .720 OPS and 13 steals. In the field, he’s committed only three errors and his plus-9 defensive runs saved in FanGraphs rankings is first among 30 qualifying shortstops.
The Yankees still believe Volpe is going to help them win in some role but they’re committed to Caballero at short.
“Hopefully, it’s just the 10 days (on the IL), but we’ll see,” Boone said. “It just depends how he heals up over the next few days. He’s got a small fracture in there. The tendon and ligaments are all good, so (our doctors) don’t think it’s going to be long.
“They feel like it’s pretty straightforward and the small fracture will heal itself and it should be a non-issue once he gets through it.”
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