Aaron Boone, Yankees have great power with Anthony Volpe-Jose Caballero debate

The Yankees always held the key to the Anthony Volpe debate among fans and the media. It was as simple as "give him a few days off." Only recently has the discourse become toxic beyond repair because of the favorable treatment Volpe had been ostensibly receiving, coupled with Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman failing to acknowledge the lack of output.

Call Jomboy's rant excessive or extreme, but there's a lot of validity to it. Volpe has not earned his playing time and there's no world in which he's the everyday starter on another contender. And while his detractors aren't appalled that he didn't produce last season with a torn labrum, they've acknowledged it's not an excuse because he decided to play through it. Most athletes would agree with that perspective, too.

The argument has devolved into a "this or that" situation with Jose Caballero, dating back to last year's trade deadline. That, too, has gone off the rails. Few fans view Caballero as the long-term answer at shortstop. They do, however, view him as a better solution over Volpe for the time being, and no WAR, OAA, DRS, xwOBA or any other advanced metric conversation will convince them otherwise. The metrics are not lining up with the eye test, and it doesn't matter if the rest of the lineup has been bad. That's not an excuse to take eyes off of Volpe, who is supposed to be improving — not regressing.

This isn't just a conversation among Yankees fans, either. Other fanbases have gotten in on the discussion and also cannot believe how much run Volpe has gotten. But Volpe has his defenders. There have been some misplaced comparisons out there, like the one to Dansby Swanson, which just misses the point entirely. Swanson was a No. 1 overall pick expedited to the big leagues after just 127 minor league games because of his pedigree. He might not have been good in his first taste of the big leagues, but the Braves also weren't in contention. They were a below-.500 team from 2014-2017 and trying to change their direction. And if you think Volpe will turn into a Swanson-esque talent, we have a bridge to sell you.

The Yankees are a World Series contender with the resources to address their shortstop position or, at the very least, make day-to-day personnel decisions to improve the lineup. But they haven't done either of those things with Volpe, who has reverted back to being bad. Even those trying to defend his baserunning skills are wildly out of touch. He's stolen seven bases in 40 games and has gotten caught four times. And he's just about right in the middle in regard to everything else on the baserunning front. This is not helping the argument. It's just stating that Volpe isn't an abject disaster in another aspect of the game.

Yankees' best decision all year was sitting Anthony Volpe vs Rays

Here we are on July 7, 2026. The Yankees finally read the room (we think). Volpe was not in the starting lineup again on Tuesday night. Caballero got the start on Monday and hit two home runs to drive in four runs in the Yankees' victory over Tampa. He earned another start on Tuesday.

Boone refused to name a starting shortstop, which is fine, but we all know the reality. You cannot recall one game Volpe had the same impact Caballero did on Monday night. It's simply just never happened. The Yankees desperately needed a victory and Caballero picked the team up with a dominant showing in a statement win.

Not to mention. there are the split stats to consider. Everybody claiming Caballero is barely better than Volpe are ignoring the fact that Caballero saw his numbers plummet when he was taken off shortstop and used at four different positions, acting as if it's simple to be a super utility player. Meanwhile, Volpe has seemingly refused to log reps at any other position besides shortstop.

Jose Caballero vs Anthony Volpe at shortstop and in clutch Yankees situations

If this isn't enough to convince the Yankees to dial Volpe back and calm down the fanbase, then we don't know what other argument there is.

• Caballero as shortstop in 2026 - .265 AVG, .750 OPS, 6 HR, 18 RBI, 14 SB in 180 plate appearances
• Volpe as shortstop in 2026 - .244 AVG, .669 OPS, 1 HR, 13 RBI, 7 SB in 145 plate appearances

• Caballero with RISP and 2 outs w/ RISP - .288 AVG, .812 OPS, 24 RBI in 61 plate appearances and .273 AVG, .804 OPS, 8 RBI in 23 plate appearances
• Volpe with RISP and 2 outs w/ RISP - .258 AVG, .636 OPS, 10 RBI in 37 plate appearances and .053 AVG, .234 OPS, 2 RBI in 22 plate appearances

• Caballero in high-leverage situations - .268 AVG, .741 OPS, 13 RBI, 6 SB in 47 plate appearances
• Volpe in high-leverage situations - .241 AVG, .395 OPS, 6 RBI, 3 SB in 29 plate appearances

Feel free to look at the overall career numbers, too. They don't favor Volpe. We'll just leave it at that.

This debate does not need advanced metrics. It simply needs a platoon of sorts, which the Yankees have refused to implement no matter how much they try to tell us they have. There is no more arguing on social media if Caballero gets a fair shake at shortstop and Volpe gets a few days off a week. Caballero has earned more of a look and Volpe has proven he's more of a bench player than anything else. That's not an outlandish observation.

Every Volpe supporter tries to claim that anybody who writes or talks negatively about the 25-year-old is "weird" and "bizarre" ... but the reality is that the criticism from those fans is directed at the Yankees for their stubbornness and refusal to accept what's right in front of them. Volpe is merely a casualty of that.

The larger theme is that the Yankees should be fighting to be a winning team rather than dying to be right about past decisions they thought would pan out. So if Volpe haters would just hug Volpe supporters and understand the bigger picture features the Yankees winning a World Series, we could get closer to achieving our ultimate goal.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow