Yankees option Anthony Volpe to minors in stunning move for former starting shortstop

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On Sunday, with his 20-day rehab window over, the Yankees had to either activate the 25-year-old onto the big-league roster or option Volpe to the minor leagues, and the club chose the latter. Volpe will stay with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the time being. It is a stunning development and a departure from how the Yankees have treated Volpe over the past three years. They never considered sending down Volpe during his middling rookie season in 2023, and even owner Hal Steinbrenner publicly backed the shortstop. They didn’t consider it in his second season when he was among the 15 worst hitters in MLB. And they didn’t consider it last season when he played through a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder that contributed to a sputtering campaign offensively and defensively. But with this decision, the Yankees have effectively concluded that playing José Caballero over Volpe at shortstop gives them a better opportunity to win. Yankees manager Aaron Boone on Sunday hinted at the potential for this move when asked what goes into the decision to possibly keep Volpe in the minor leagues. “Caballero is playing the heck out of the position and playing really well,” Boone said. “That complicates it.” Boone has said that of all the publicly available defensive metrics, Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) is his favorite. Entering Monday’s series finale against the Baltimore Orioles, Caballero led all shortstops with 7 DRS. And while he might be over-performing his expected offensive metrics, Caballero has produced at the plate and on the bases with 12 steals. This might be a difficult decision for the Yankees to make, considering how they positioned Volpe as a long-term building block. But they have the best record in the American League, and Caballero has been an important piece of the team that they can’t just take out of the equation to accommodate Volpe. “He’s been right in the middle of that, defensively and offensively,” Boone said of Caballero’s impact. “He’s earned some opportunities there. It’s really as simple as that. “The fact is we’re probably as deep as we’ve ever been, and we have real competition for real spots and real roles on the team that we haven’t had at some moments in time, at some portions of seasons. The reality is we have a lot of really good players competing for roles.” The Yankees can push Volpe’s free agency from 2028 to 2029 if he stays at least 20 days in the minor leagues. (Rehab assignments do not count toward that total.) But that does not seem to be the No. 1 factor the Yankees are weighing here. Instead, they appear to be signaling that, at this moment, Volpe does not give them the best chance to win. Volpe, a first-round pick in 2019, has struggled through his first three MLB seasons. Of the 118 players who have at least 1,500 plate appearances since Volpe debuted in 2023, he has the worst on-base percentage, second-worst batting average, third-worst OPS, fourth-worst wRC+ and seventh-worst slugging percentage. Volpe’s defense has generated most of his value, as he’s ranked fifth among all shortstops in DRS, but even his defense slipped considerably last season. In Volpe’s absence this season, Caballero has performed as a top-end defender and has hit. By choosing Caballero, the organization is riding the hot hand. “You can’t ignore that he’s played so well defensively at shortstop and been a real spark for us offensively,” Boone said Sunday. With Caballero’s offensive metrics looking potentially unsustainable, the Yankees may be wise to wait until the inevitable regression begins. Until then, Volpe could be stuck in the minors. Boone has said that he “loves” the idea of Caballero being in the Yankees’ super-utility role, but he hasn’t had any reps, pregame or in-game, outside of shortstop to start the season. Boone said Sunday that Volpe is not expected to play anywhere other than shortstop in the minors. Optioning Volpe is the latest move this season that shows the Yankees are acting with perhaps more urgency than in years past. They’ve demoted Luis Gil to the minors and called up Elmer Rodríguez. They benched Ryan McMahon earlier in the season to play Amed Rosario. They don’t have Ben Rice in a platoon with Paul Goldschmidt. They released Randal Grichuk when they could have demoted Max Schuemann instead. And they promoted top prospect George Lombard Jr. to Triple A, accelerating his timeline for a potential 2026 call-up. By making this move, the organization has shown it is acting with a ruthlessness that hasn’t always been evident in some roster decisions over recent seasons. “At the end of the day, we’re going to try and do what’s best for our team and then individual players that we care about, too, and know that are going to be important contributors to our team,” Boone said. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms