New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone admitted Thursday that shortstop Anthony Volpe has played through a partial labrum tear in his left shoulder since May, if not longer.
The team had not previously revealed the lingering injury, which dates back to a play in the field in early May when he heard a “pop” in his shoulder. At the time, Boone told reporters that Volpe’s X-rays and MRI turned back “good news.”
But after a New York Post report earlier Thursday that said Volpe received a cortisone shot in the left shoulder, Boone said Volpe reaggravated the shoulder injury on a dive Sunday. The 24-year-old isn’t expected to need a stint on the injured list.
“Obviously he had the incident in May where he dove and hurt his shoulder a little bit but felt it,” Boone said Thursday. “At that time, we MRI-ed it, he had a partial labrum tear that I think they felt like was an old injury, but really more just aggravating it and the swelling of it. Once that got out of there, he was good to go.”
New York’s everyday shortstop until recently, Volpe has appeared in 141 of the Yankees’ 145 games, most of anyone on the team. He has struggled in the field, committing an American League-high 19 errors, and at the plate, batting .206 with a .145 average since Aug. 2.
The Yankees acquired utility man Jose Caballero from the Tampa Bay Rays at the trade deadline and have begun giving him starts at shortstop. Caballero started Wednesday against the Detroit Tigers and was back at shortstop in Thursday’s lineup, meaning Volpe is in line to miss back-to-back games for the first time all season.
“It was my decision not to have him in the lineup (Wednesday). It had nothing to do with (the injury),” Boone said. “This kind of information came later.”
Volpe was a first-round draft pick by the Yankees in 2019 and won the starting shortstop job in spring training of 2023. He is a career .221 batter with 52 home runs, 190 RBIs and 68 steals in 460 games. This season, he has hit 19 homers and a career-high 70 RBIs.
