Anthony Volpe will begin taking pregame drills at second base for the Yankees on May 22, 2026, manager Aaron Boone told reporters on Friday, a deliberate step as the club rethinks how to allocate middle-infield minutes.
Boone said the team would have Volpe work at second base in advance of Sunday’s game, and that each night’s alignment would be decided on a game-by-game basis. The move follows José Caballero’s return from a brief injured-list stint caused by a fracture in his right middle finger; Caballero started at shortstop against Nick Martinez in the big weekend series against the Rays on May 22.
The numbers underline why this matters. Volpe has logged more than 4,000 innings at the major-league level — almost entirely at shortstop — and his only recorded experience at second came five years ago, when he started two games at that spot in A-ball. Jazz Chisholm Jr. remains the primary second baseman: on May 22 he was starting his 48th of 52 games at the position. Amed Rosario has supplied the occasional spell at second, making the other four starts to give Chisholm a left-handed matchup breather.
While Caballero was out, Volpe appeared in eight games and produced five hits, including two doubles, and drew seven walks in 30 plate appearances. The Yankees did not send him back to Triple-A after that stint, a sign that the club values keeping him on the big-league roster even as it plots multiple infield permutations. The team also optioned rookie outfielder Spencer Jones on May 21, 2026, a roster move that cleared a spot for the shuffle.
Context matters here: Caballero led the team with 13 stolen bases and was hitting.259/.320/.400 across 147 plate appearances before his injury, and he served as the full-time shortstop early in the season while Volpe was rehabbing shoulder surgery from last fall. Boone said he views Caballero as the starting shortstop when healthy, but he also emphasized that the club will keep its options open and tailor daily matchups and alignments to the opponent. Boone added that the Yankees do not intend to have Volpe take reps at third base.
The tension lies in reconciling a very short résumé at second base with the Yankees’ stated hope to feel comfortable using Volpe at either middle-infield spot. Volpe’s major-league resume is overwhelmingly shortstop, yet the team is explicitly trying to stretch his versatility. That experiment bumps against Chisholm’s heavy workload at second — 48 starts in 52 games — and the club’s need for dependable defensive coverage if and when Caballero or others require rest. It also arrives while the Yankees have not received much from Ryan McMahon at third base this year, increasing the premium on internal flexibility.
For Volpe, the drills are a low-risk probe and a high-stakes audition. Practice reps won’t erase the fact that his only professional second-base starts at the pro level occurred five years ago in A-ball, but they will be the first, closely watched evidence of whether he can handle the footwork and angles regularly. The club’s decision not to send him to Triple-A after his recent eight-game cameo suggests the front office prefers to test that adaptability at the big-league level rather than in the minors.
What happens next is straightforward and decisive: Boone will keep making that shortstop-versus-second decision every night. If Volpe’s pregame work translates to game action without a defensive drop-off, the Yankees gain a two-way middle-infield option they have been searching for. If it doesn’t, Caballero’s hold on shortstop and Chisholm’s daily starts at second remain the default path. Either way, Volpe’s comfort at second in the coming days will determine whether this is a temporary experiment or the start of a permanent shift in the Yankees’ infield construction.
