Positive Anthony Volpe injury update leaks before Yankees drop nightmare lineup

Trash New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe all you want. Complain about how he isn't Corey Seager. Cite his first two roller coaster seasons and ignore his third one. Bottom line? If you hate Volpe, you're going to really hate his current backups.

The third-year Yankees shortstop has his faults, and we've made our opinion on them patently clear. Still, he's made himself completely indispensible, based on the current roster construction. That's a Brian Cashman issue, sure, but it's also an endorsement of Volpe. Typically, he's too willing to participate, plays too much, and could use a breather now and then as he wears himself down midseason. But as soon as he disappears ... it's Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza and Pablo Reyes - and things get even worse if Jazz Chisholm Jr. happens to be down at the same time.

The Yankees gave fans exactly the scare they suspected on Sunday afternoon, dropping a ghastly bottom half of the lineup for their series finale with the Rays, including backup catcher JC Escarra, Reyes, Cabrera, and Peraza in a row. Ben Rice and Austin Wells will sit, and Volpe, after hearing a "pop" in his shoulder on Saturday's dive, will sit as well.

Caution is warranted here, but the absence might not be as ominous as we feared after all. Former MLB GM Jim Bowden was the first to note, about a half-hour after the lineup dropped, that Volpe's MRI came out clean. Aaron Boone echoed that sentiment two hours before the proposed first pitch, calling the news "good" while acknowledging that Volpe and his "cranky" shoulder are currently day-to-day.

Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe Injury Update: day-to-day after shoulder MRI comes back clean

If there was ever a game to keep Volpe out of, it's Sunday's slopfest, the first of four consecutive days where the Yankees will be threatened by rain in the Bronx. Given that the next three are against an opponent in San Diego that doesn't exactly come east very often, MLB is more likely to bag a Rays game over any of the contests that follow.

Still, rain or shine, Volpe was never playing in this one, though his good spirits at Saturday's team dinner and subsequent examination results seem to indicate this won't linger as long as we feared (or end his season months ahead of schedule).