Boone: Volpe will play some 2B in minors

Lombard will make his major-league debut against the Cardinals on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. The 21-year-old remains a work in progress from an offensive standpoint at this stage of his development, but he’s shown some real over-the-fence pop at the Triple-A level this season. He’s a phenomenal defender and projects as New York’s long-term answer at shortstop, which means they can finally end the bizarre José Caballero and Anthony Volpe timeshare once and for all. He may not provide an instant fantasy impact outside of deeper leagues, but Lombard in a prospect worth monitoring closely, even in shallow mixers.

It’s possible we’ve seen Volpe for the final time this season with top prospect George Lombard Jr. set to take over as New York’s shortstop until further notice. The 25-year-old drew constant criticism for defensive miscues and never quite lived up to the stratospheric hype he generated in the minors. He’s still only 25 years old, which means there’s probably another organization out there willing to roll the dice on him down the road.

Aided by a run of lefty opponents, Volpe now started three out of four games after sitting out nine of the previous 13. He’s not exactly tearing it up with his .681 OPS this season, but he has overtaken José Caballero there. Caballero is down to .664 while hitting .211 with a 19/1 K/BB this month.

They condition this with the idea that he’ll need to show his injured fingers are fine and he’ll need to keep producing for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre when he returns. But in their eyes, the Yankees have no confidence in Anthony Volpe or José Caballero at this point. They also quote Yankees GM Brian Cashman as saying that Lombard “might be a choice at some point.”

Volpe had sat the last two games with Jose Caballero playing shortstop, but Caballero will move to second base on Wednesday and Jazz Chisholm Jr. will get a day off. Earlier this season, Volpe became the first player in MLB history with over 1,800 plate appearances and an on-base percentage under .285. His defense at shortstop has improved this year, but he’s not giving the Yankees much else.

This will make back-to-back games that Volpe will sit with Jose Caballero playing shortstop. The 25-year-old has gotten on base at a respectable .340 clip, but he’s hit just one homer in 2026 and his .668 OPS on the year leaves much to be desired — and is unfortunately right in line with his career .662 number. Volpe has flashed the potential to be an excellent fantasy contributor, but it’s just too hard to trust him to be in lineups at this stage of his career.

The Yankees said that Judge “is expected to return at some point this season.” Still, he’s pretty clearly done through the All-Star break at least and quite possible until August. This probably means more José Caballero in right field and Anthony Volpe at shortstop for now. Once Jasson Domínguez comes off the injured list, he could get a chance to play regularly in the outfield. It’s a significant loss for fantasy managers but it sounds like there’s a strong possibility Judge is able to return at some point in the second half.

For the third straight game, Aaron Judge (ribs) is not in the Yankees lineup. However, as of now, he is also not on the injured list. The team has sent him for additional meetings with a specialist since the bone bruise on his ribcage is in such a unique spot. The Yankees will face Boston on Friday, so no off days are coming, which means the team will likely need to decide on whether or not to put Judge on the injured list before the weekend series starts. For Thursday, Jose Caballero will play shortstop with Anthony Volpe on the bench, and Max Schuemann will play right field and bat ninth.

The assumption based on comments from Yankees manager Aaron Boone was that Caballero would remain the club’s starting shortstop upon returning from the injured list. Simply put, that hasn’t happened. Anthony Volpe is making his third straight start at the position with Caballero heading to the outfield. It seems like it’ll be more of a timeshare at the position with Caballero bouncing around on occasion if Volpe continues to produce.

Volpe got a second straight start at shortstop after sitting in José Caballero’s first two games back from the IL and has his best game of the season to date. The homer off Bailey Falter was his first in his 10 starts. He’s hitting .281/.425/.469 with seven RBI in 40 plate appearances.