Anthony Volpe expected to miss start of season as Yankees reveal lengthy timeline

Anthony Volpe will not be the Yankees starting shortstop come Opening Day in San Francisco. 

But that’s because of his rehab from shoulder surgery, not because the organization has changed its belief on what he can still be. 

After Volpe underwent surgery earlier this week to repair a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder, both general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone continued to go to bat for the 24-year-old, indicating he will remain their starting shortstop once he is healthy. 

Neither Cashman nor Boone could fully quantify just how much of an impact Volpe playing through the shoulder issue for most of the season had on his performance during a difficult year, though Cashman said it was more than he initially believed because the surgery ended up being “more severe” than the MRI had indicated it would be. 

“Sometimes this [trajectory] isn’t linear,” Cashman said Thursday at Yankee Stadium, a week after the Yankees were knocked out of the ALDS. “It’s also not guaranteed, and that’s why it’s fair to always assess what you have and is it good enough, do you need to replace it, can you find better? That, I promise you, always takes place. 

“But I believe in the player. I think we believe in the player. I think the injury probably contributed to the performance season he wound up having more so than we would have thought, based on our intimate involvement with him and our medical staff and how that played out. The facts are the facts.” 

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Now, instead of an offseason spent making adjustments to his game, Volpe will be mostly limited to rehabbing his shoulder. He will not be able to hit until mid-February, around the time spring training begins, and cannot dive until six months, which would be mid-April. 

Boone indicated the Yankees might have a more exact timeline three to four months into the recovery, but Cashman was more definitive that Volpe would begin the season on the injured list and “be ready sometime in April, worst-case scenario May.” 

“So somebody will be playing shortstop, not him, on Opening Day — that’s not a good thing for us,” Cashman said. “Missing him and not having him here as an option for us is a problem. Looking forward to getting a fixed Anthony Volpe back so he can be deployed and help us win games.” 

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The in-house options to replace Volpe at the start of the season begin with José Caballero, the utility player who threatened to take over the starting job in September (while Volpe recovered from a second cortisone injection), along with Oswaldo Cabrera, who is coming back from a fractured ankle. The Yankees could also look to add another shortstop this offseason, though the free-agent market is not overflowing with attractive options, and they may not want to bring in anyone that would eventually get in the way of top prospect George Lombard Jr., who could enter the picture at some point later in 2026. 

Still, the Yankees appear committed to trying to make it work with Volpe, who has yet to fully live up to the lofty expectations that followed him through his first three seasons in the big leagues. 

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This season was Volpe’s toughest in pinstripes, in large part because of a brutal defensive stretch during the summer that led to him finishing the year with 19 errors (tied for the most in the American League), though he finished well. But the streaky hitter also had another rough year offensively, ending up with a .663 OPS (right in line with his career mark of .662) while batting just .212 with 19 home runs and 18 steals. 

“For him to become that front-line shortstop, that’s got to improve,” Boone said. “He understands that, we understand that. Hopefully he has that opportunity to continue to do that. I also think it’s important to note … he’s 24 years old. 

“The reality is he’s a really talented player that works his butt off, that has tremendous makeup, tremendous toughness and is a great person in our room. I’m going to bet on that. That said, it hasn’t happened offensively speaking to the level it needs to yet. It doesn’t mean it won’t get there.”