TAMPA — Anthony Volpe woke up from surgery in October to a surprise, but not an excuse.
Speaking Tuesday for the first time since going under the knife to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, the Yankees shortstop still refused to use the injury as an explanation for his poor play last season, despite the damage being worse than tests had suggested as he played through it.
“I know I could have played better,” Volpe said Tuesday after the Yankees worked out at George M. Steinbrenner Field. “I felt strong and good enough to go. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have. But you definitely learn a lot about yourself. Then when you see what ended up happening and having to get surgery, you learn a lot about the mindset and how you got to be self-aware and aware of certain things going on. If you’re going to play through it, how to perform and do the best you can.”
It remains impossible to determine just how much the ailing left shoulder impacted Volpe’s play after he initially injured it on a dive on May 3, 2025.
He said Tuesday that “it just didn’t feel like my right shoulder — my left side didn’t feel like my right.”
But the end result was his worst year in pinstripes on both sides of the ball.
The 24-year-old struggled defensively, especially during the summer months, and was far less dependable than when he won a Gold Glove as a rookie in 2023. Offensively, it was more of the same inconsistency as he hit just .212 with a .663 OPS and 19 home runs.
Now, after three full seasons in the big leagues, Volpe is still facing questions about his future, and exactly what the Yankees have in him, though he will not get a chance to show it until late April or early May after starting the season on the injured list to finish off his rehab.
“The chip I’ve had on my shoulder has been there for my whole life, my whole career,” Volpe said. “I just can’t wait to go back out there and play and feel good and perform and help the team win. At the end of the day, if I do that and I play the way I know I can play, everything will take care of itself.
“I appreciate everything — I appreciate the accountability, I appreciate everything that comes with being the shortstop for the New York Yankees. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. That’s why I just can’t wait to get out there.”
Volpe will just have to wait a little longer for that to happen. He began his hitting progression Monday with dry swings — which will soon be followed by hitting off a tee — but otherwise is a full go defensively besides diving, which will be the last step in his recovery before he is cleared.
The rehab process has been a painstaking one, with Volpe describing the first half of it as feeling like “rock bottom” physically.
“But I really wanted to make sure the rest of my body was ready to go and ready to play 162,” Volpe said. “Probably at the turn of the new year is when I started to feel good and started to do baseball activity. That was definitely nice.”
During the first few days of spring training, Volpe has been throwing, taking ground balls with the rest of the starting infield and going through defensive and baserunning drills. Before camp is over, he will likely advance to hitting on the field and perhaps playing in Grapefruit League games
José Caballero is expected to start the season at shortstop until Volpe returns, but once he does, it will be a critical year for the homegrown player trying to prove he still has a place in the organization’s future.
“There’s been a lot of positives in the whole process, just slowing stuff down and working literally from the ground up,” Volpe said. “So to take those things and go from there has been nice.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
