It's Time for the Yankees to Give Up on Anthony Volpe

Manager Aaron Boone has long stood by New York's former top prospect, but there's more than enough evidence to determine that Volpe can't handle a starting job.

Anthony Volpe is in his fourth season with the Yankees | Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

Anthony Volpe has had about every opportunity imaginable to succeed with the Yankees. The franchise’s first-round pick in 2019, and a New York native, there was some hope that Volpe could develop into a franchise cornerstone and the team’s long-term solution at shortstop.

Since Derek Jeter retired, the Yankees have deployed 15 different players at shortstop, ranging from Didi Gregorius to this year’s tandem of Volpe and José Caballero. None have lasted more than four years, and it really felt as if the team wanted Volpe to be the next organizational success story and Jeter’s heir apparent. The team even gave Volpe the No. 11 jersey, which, considering the amount of low jersey numbers retired by the franchise, was seen as a sign of their belief in him.

We’re now in Year 4 of the Volpe experiment, and many Yankees fans have long given up on his potential to become a star, or even a serviceable starter, in the big leagues. Manager Aaron Boone, on the other hand, continues to express his belief in the 25-year-old.

Volpe started the this season on the IL but returned to the Yankees in May after Caballero went down with an injury. Volpe got off to a solid start but the positive results only lasted a couple of weeks, and he’s since been abysmal on both sides of the field. Despite winning a Gold Glove award in his rookie season, Volpe has been prone to making fundamental defensive mistakes—he led all American League shortstops with 18 errors last year. He did look solid defensively in his first handful of games this season, enough so that Boone spoke very highly of his defense in a tense interview with Jomboy Media, only for Volpe to commit costly errors in consecutive games immediately after the praise from his manager.

Volpe throws it away on an infield single pic.twitter.com/6HVk7t41rn

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) June 10, 2026

Volpe has just two hits and one RBI in seven June games. He’s slashing a hardly believable .083/.154/.125 this month, with just three total bases in 24 at-bats. He’s struck out five times in that span while walking twice. That could, perhaps, partially be chalked up to some bad luck. But the fact of the matter is Volpe has never been an elite contact hitter since arriving in the majors. He has not batted above .243 in any season, and has had a sub-.675 OPS every year. With his defense not developing—or at least holding strong—the way fans had hoped, it’s becoming more difficult with each passing day to justify having Volpe on the 26-man roster. Especially with other, more serviceable options waiting in the wings.

Earlier this season, Caballero had done an excellent job of manning the Yankees' shortstop position. In fact, he was playing well enough to the point where the Yankees opted to delay Volpe’s return from injury to let him continue getting everyday reps at shortstop. Volpe remained in Triple A until Caballero went down with an injury of his own, after which Volpe returned to the bigs.

Caballero isn’t a world beater, but prior to going down with an injury, he was hot at the plate. On the year, he owns a .703 OPS with five home runs, 18 RBIs and 15 stolen bases in 56 games. Those aren’t numbers that jump off the page, but he’s been more productive than Volpe in just about every statistical category. Caballero returned from the IL on May 22. In the following three weeks since he was reactivated, he’s been shifted around to various defensive positions, including third base and right field, while Volpe has drawn the bulk of the starts at shortstop.

Just last week, Boone spoke with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman on The Show podcast, and he continued to express his belief in Volpe despite his prolonged struggles.

“I see talent. I see a tough kid that works his butt off that’s not afraid of that noise,” said the Yankees manager. “He hasn’t found the way to the level he expects yet and that we expect him to get to, but he’s also still a very young player who’s had a lot of real success.”

Is that “real success” in the room with us right now? Yes, Volpe is young. But at 25 and in his fourth MLB season, it’s fair to say that he hasn’t shown near enough encouraging signs of significant development, neither as a hitter nor in the field. Is this really a team that can afford to wait until things finally click for Volpe, if ever?

The Yankees have legitimate World Series aspirations, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Volpe isn’t a player who's going to enhance their chances of competing for a championship. He’s gotten measurably worse since he debuted in 2023, but the organization continues to give him chance after chance. New York's brain trust must come to the realization that Volpe’s ceiling isn’t as high as the franchise had once projected—and with top prospect George Lombard Jr. looking more like the shortstop of the future in the Bronx, Volpe will likely wind up merely being a bridge shortstop until Lombard gets his big-league promotion.

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