Aaron Boone's Anthony Volpe insistence has Yankees in dangerous roster territory

It's no secret that the Yankees are staring at a looming roster crunch, with both Jasson Dominguez and Giancarlo Stanton seemingly trending toward a return at some point in the next week or two. Dominguez began his rehab assignment Triple-A this past weekend, while Aaron Boone told reporters on Monday that Stanton would "hopefully" be back at some point during New York's next homestand from June 16-21.

But if you're among those hoping that Anthony Volpe would one of the players sent down to make room on the big-league roster, well, I wouldn't hold your breath. Boone confirmed to Talkin' Yanks that Volpe will once again be the lineup at shortstop for Tuesday night's game against the Guardians, and at this point it seems like no amount of evidence to the contrary is going to change his mind about his former top prospect — with disastrous consequences for the Yankees' roster.

Aaron Boone's commitment to playing Anthony Volpe is increasingly detached from reality

Even as someone who has been willing to defend Volpe in the past as a young player who was obviously playing through pain last season, Boone's faith here feels almost impossible to explain. When asked by Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman about what he saw in his young shortstop, his response not only failed to inspire confidence but actively insulted the intelligence of his own fan base.

"Not afraid of the noise"? "Still a very young player who's had a lot of real success"? Sure, Boone has a view into Volpe as a person and player that the rest of us don't, but this simply doesn't match the player we've seen on the field since he returned last month. As if that weren't laughable enough, Boone went on to defend the quality of Volpe's at-bats, citing as a positive example his fly-out with the bases loaded during Sunday's win over the Red Sox — because apparently getting beat by a middle-middle 92-mph fastball in a 3-1 count is something to be celebrated.

And yet, despite being adequate at best in the field and offering next to nothing at the plate, Volpe continues to play: Tuesday will be his fifth start and sixth appearance in New York's last seven games. Obviously no one expects Boone to bury Volpe in the media, but the playing time pattern makes clear that Boone cannot be trusted to evaluate his own roster. That alone should be sufficient reason for Brian Cashman to make Volpe the odd man out once reinforcements arrive; the fact that the Yankees would demoting other, more deserving options in his stead is just salt in the wound.

Yankees can't afford to hamstring their roster with Aaron Judge on the shelf

In a perfect world, neither Jose Caballero nor Max Schuemann would be this team's everyday shortstop. But we don't live in a perfect world, and right now it's hard to avoid the conclusion that both of them are worthier of a roster spot than Volpe is once Dominguez and Stanton return. Caballero is a pest of an athlete, while Schuemann gets on base consistently and plays with a confidence this team could sorely use (look no further than his pinch-hit walk on Monday night he won on a challenge).

But even beyond the on-field argument, both Caballero and Schuemann come with the added benefit of being players Boone is willing to bench if and when the situation calls for it. This is one of the things that makes New York's manager so frustrating: He's more than capable of getting creative to put his best lineups on the field, at least as long as his priors don't get in the way first.

That flexibility is even more important with Aaron Judge out, a stretch in which the ability to prevent runs defensively and manufacture them offensively will be crucial. There's nothing Volpe is giving you that Caballero and Schuemann aren't, and yet unlike those two, he comes with the added baggage of not being able to play a position other than short and a manager who can't be trusted to handle him responsibly. That makes him the obvious choice once Dominguez is back, but if Volpe's history with this team has taught us anything, it's that things are never as simple as they should be.

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