Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe has been playing through a partial tear in his left labrum, but he is unlikely to land on the injured list, manager Aaron Boone said before Thursday night’s game against the Detroit Tigers.
Boone confirmed that Volpe, who was not in the lineup for the second straight game, received a cortisone injection on Wednesday after first telling the team about the injury to his left shoulder after diving for a ball in May. However, the manager said that the struggling shortstop’s absence from the lineup on Wednesday was not injury-related after he played in Tuesday's series opener against Detroit.
“I did not know about Sunday, where he kinda reaggrivated it on a dive,” Boone said. “So my decision not to have him in the lineup [on Wednesday] had nothing to do with that. This information came later.”
After Volpe underwent an MRI on the shoulder in May, he was diagnosed with a partial tear, which Boone said they believed to be an old injury that the shortstop would be able to play through. The club added that he was first treated with a cortisone injection during the All-Star break in July, which the shoulder seemingly responded well to.
“It was really more him aggravating it and kinda probably more swelling of it, and once that [swelling] got out of there, he was good to go,” the skipper said. “He’s aggravated it maybe a couple of times, Sunday being one of them. And each time, I think it’s just a swelling issue.”
Volpe, who has struggled all season and recently lost time to Jose Caballero at short, has just 30 hits in 160 at-bats (.188) across 46 games since the break, with a .224 OBP, .413 slugging percentage, and 49 strikeouts to seven walks. (Coincidentally, it was Caballero's ground ball that Volpe was diving for when he sustained the injury during a game against Tampa on May 3.) However, while Boone said that every injury can bother a player and impact performance, he doesn’t believe the injury has affected Volpe’s performance at the plate.
"It's impossible to say that this affected something this much or it didn't at all. How could you possibly know that?" Boone said. "I don't think it's been a major factor in his performance or his ability to swing that bat or his ability to kinda go to the post every day. That's my sense."
After Volpe felt something this week, he underwent another MRI, which showed “a little bit more of a labrum tear, but nothing that we think is gonna land him on the IL or nothing that he can’t continue to play through,” Boone said. “I don’t expect it to be an issue, but with that being said, if he goes out there and aggravates it again, we may have to look at it more.”
Volpe is already feeling some improvement from the cortisone shot on Thursday and should be able to return to the lineup in the next few days, the manager added.
The club doesn’t believe the 24-year-old will require offseason surgery, but he will undergo an MRI on the shoulder at season’s end, which could result in a change of treatment plan.
On the season, Volpe is batting .206 with a .661 OPS and has struggled on defense, with 19 errors and a minus-9 outs above average, the worst among MLB shortstops. Through his first 460 career games over three seasons, he's posted a .221/.282/.379 slash line for a .661 OPS.
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