Yankees utterly blew it promoting Anthony Volpe over surging former top prospect

The New York Yankees' era of urgency is over. Jose Caballero hitting the 10-day injured list with a finger injury, has led to the inevitable: the call-up of Anthony Volpe. This would all be fine if Volpe had hit the ground running in Scranton and forced the issue, but that hasn't been the case. In fact, there was another former top prospect raking down on the farm who was forcing the issue, but he didn't get the call.

Marco Luciano was once the San Francisco Giants' No. 2 overall prospect and ranked No. 39 on MLB Pipeline's 2024 top-100 list. At the time, the 24-year-old was a budding young shortstop with a bright future. Things didn't pan out, and Luciano rode the waiver wire whirlwind this winter, moving to Pittsburgh, then Baltimore, before finally settling in New York.

After his head finally stopped spinning following all the transactions, Luciano began his 2026 campaign down in Somerset, outshining Volpe while the Yankees' Golden Boy was in Double-A on his rehab assignment.

After hitting .327/.410/.713 with a whopping 10 dingers in Somerset, Luciano got promoted to Scranton. It's only been two games since he arrived in Triple-A, but he's slashing .286/.375/.286 so far.

Meanwhile, Volpe hit just .241/.324/.241 over nine games in Somerset. After being optioned to Scranton, he's played another nine games, hitting even worse with a .205/.238/.333 line.

Marco Luciano can put pressure on the Yankees after Anthony Volpe promotion

Volpe may not have deserved this opportunity over Luciano, but here we are. Now, the expectation is that Caballero doesn't miss more than the minimum, and Aaron Boone has said that he expects the team will go back to the former Tampa Bay Ray as the starting shortstop once he's healthy.

So where does that leave Volpe? Do they send him back down and take another swing at gaining an extra year of service time? Or perhaps could the fallen idol take on a new role?

With Jazz Chisholm Jr. struggling mightily despite his big offseason talk, perhaps the ruthless efficiency we saw the club exercise earlier in the season returns. If Volpe performs well given this opportunity, maybe he slides over to second base and sends Chisholm Jr. to the pine.

Is it likely? No, not at all. In fact, the Yankees moved top prospect George Lombard Jr. around the diamond to accommodate Volpe at short, rather than make life easy on the blue-chipper.

So while Volpe hasn't gotten experience at other positions, if we know anything about the Yankees, it's that they want him to succeed at all costs. If he comes up and does well, even if it's just a short two-week sample, it's hard to imagine they'd be able to pull the trigger and send him back down.

If there's a player on the roster now who deserves a wake-up call, it's Chisholm Jr. So if we can take Boone at his word that Caballero will be the starting shortstop when he comes back, but Volpe is performing well, adapting the earlier ruthless strategy and sitting down Jazz makes a ton of sense.

This could be Volpe's opportunity to work his way back. It might not be what he and the Yankees envisioned, but it's what makes the most sense now. The only thing he has to do is actually go out and earn it. No big deal.

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