Yanks still view Volpe as starting SS if healthy

NEW YORK -- Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said he still views Anthony Volpe, who is coming off a disappointing season, as New York's starting shortstop for 2026 once the former top prospect recovers from shoulder surgery.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Thursday that Volpe won't swing a bat for at least four months and will be unable to dive on his surgically repaired left shoulder for six months.

Cashman added that the Yankees hope Volpe will be ready "sometime in April; maybe, worst-case scenario, May." The Yankees open the 2026 season in San Francisco against the Giants on March 25.

Volpe failed to take the next step in his third major league season, batting just .212 with a .663 OPS while declining on defense in 153 games during the regular season. Despite the continued struggles -- he owns a .222 batting average and .662 OPS for his career -- Cashman said he still views Volpe as the starting shortstop when healthy.

"I think so," Cashman said Thursday. "I believe in the player still. I think we believe in the player. It doesn't mean we don't play with, on any level, all aspects of roster assessments. He's 24 years old. I don't think the New York stage is too big for him. It's just still finding his way."

Yankees team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad performed the arthroscopic procedure to repair a partially torn labrum in Volpe's left shoulder Tuesday, less than a week after the end of his disappointing 2025 season.

Cashman, adamant during the season that he did not believe the injury was a factor in Volpe's lackluster performance, said the required surgical cleanup was more "severe" than the pre-surgery MRI showed.

"I personally think now, I'm certainly leaning more into that, yes, it was affecting him," Cashman said. "Because ultimately, he had to have a surgery. None of that was really on the table in-season."

Volpe initially suffered the injury in early May and often wore a wrap to treat the shoulder after games. He never went on the injured list over the next five-plus months, but he received two cortisone shots -- one during the All-Star break in July and another in September -- to quell the pain.

Volpe didn't start in six straight games to recover from the injection in September, but he returned to his role as the every-day shortstop for the final 10 regular-season games and into the postseason. He went 4-for-11 in the three-game American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox, but finished the year 1-for-15 with 11 strikeouts in the four-game AL Division Series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

In September, days after Volpe was given the second cortisone shot, Cashman said surgery was not recommended, but that could change. Cashman said Thursday that he doesn't believe Volpe was "misleading anybody" in his communication with the training staff and team decision-makers about the shoulder injury.

A Gold Glove winner in 2023, Volpe also committed 19 errors this season -- tied for the third most in the majors.

"I think the injury probably contributed to the performance season that he wound up having more so than we would have through based on our intimate involvement with him and our medical staff and how that played out," Cashman said. "The facts are the facts: He had to have a surgery that's going to take him down."

The Yankees named a then-21-year-old Volpe, a lifelong Yankees fan born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, their Opening Day shortstop in 2023 amid great expectations as the organization's top prospect.

But the 2019 first-round draft pick has been one of the worst regulars since debuting in the majors that year. His 85 wRC+ is tied for 100th among 103 players with at least 1,500 plate appearances over the last three seasons. His .222 batting average and .283 on-base percentage rank last.

For now, at least, the Yankees plan to continue with Volpe as their starting shortstop once he recovers.

Jose Caballero filled in periodically for Volpe at shortstop over the final two months of the season, and the Yankees also could use Oswaldo Cabrera at the position.

"The offense is really in line with what he's done the first two years," Boone said. "It's looked a lot of different ways, but you look up and it's been kind of that same OPS. Whether the average has been lower, there's been more power in some years.

"For him to become that frontline shortstop, [his hitting] has got to improve. He understands that. We understand that. He's 24 years old."