BOSTON — In the short term, Anthony Volpe is not expected to start any games this weekend against the Red Sox because of the cortisone injection he received in his left shoulder on Wednesday.
Then even once he is fully available, Volpe is far from guaranteed to go right back to starting at shortstop, especially as José Caballero gets an even longer runway to take hold of the job.
As for beyond this year? Brian Cashman indicated Friday he still views the 24-year-old Volpe as the Yankees shortstop of the future.
“Yeah, I think he’s a good player,” Cashman said at Fenway Park before the Yankees’ 4-1 win over the Red Sox. “This year notwithstanding, he’s got a lot of abilities that are positive. He’s had a tough stretch, but I think he’s someone we can count on and we believe in.
“But acknowledging at the same time, this isn’t the season we expected or he expected. But that doesn’t change our viewpoint of what he’s capable of. I think he’s a really talented guy and I think he has a chance to be a positive impact on us.”
Volpe has shown flashes of that at times over his first three years in the big leagues, but not consistently enough.
And he has taken steps back this season on both sides of the ball, as he entered the weekend batting .206 with a .661 OPS and defensive metrics that have regressed.
Across 460 career games, he was batting .221 with a .661 OPS.
Now the Yankees will have to determine just how much the partial labrum tear in his shoulder — which they discovered after he felt a pop diving for a ball on May 3 — affected his performance this season.
He played through it and then aggravated the injury Sunday on another diving play, which is what led to Wednesday’s cortisone shot that will take three to four days to recover from.
“Clearly it’s something he’s been bothered by,” Cashman said. “Earlier in the year, it came up. They did the imaging, hit him up with a shot and he had immediate benefit. So we thought it was behind him. But he’s a hard-nosed player. He’s diving all over the place at all times. It’s like a wide receiver going for a pass and falling on his shoulder and next thing you know, more recently it just got re-aggravated again and maybe got a little worse.
“In between those times, he’s had no complaints whatsoever. At the same time, you look at the numbers. So I’d say it’s not black and white. It’s gray. I don’t know if anybody has a real answer to it.”
Cashman said offseason surgery could not yet be ruled out, with the Yankees planning on more imaging of the shoulder after the season is over.
As for the more immediate concern, Cashman deferred to Boone for how the shortstop situation would play out once Volpe is fully available again, with the manager describing it as fluid.
“[Caballero] is playing really well and does a lot of really good things, but there’s a value in the days he’s on the bench, too,” said Boone of the shortstop, who went 1-for-4 in Friday’s win. “What he brings as a weapon and the versatility he provides. … We’re at that time of the year where I’m going to do what I think is best for us each and every day.”
Until recently, the Yankees had gone out of their way to defend Volpe’s play this season, but at this point on the calendar with the club still trying to chase down the Blue Jays for the division, their tone has changed.
So have their lineups, with Caballero starting his third straight game on Friday and set to make it five straight by the end of the weekend.
“Hopefully in the next few days [Volpe] gets through this and he’s back in the mix,” Boone said. “We saw him really turn it on last postseason, some of his best baseball, and hopefully that’s still ahead of him.”
