September 12th, 2025: Volpe, Bullpen, Mailbag

What a rancid few days for the organization. Let’s just get right to today’s post. (Davy Andrews had a good piece on Cody Bellinger’s season and the player he is these days. Check it out.)

1. Volpe has a partial labrum tear. The team that let Anthony Rizzo play through a concussion for two months is back with another banger. After four months, the Yankees finally clarified the left shoulder injury Anthony Volpe suffered on a dive back on May 3rd (Volpe said he felt a “pop” at the time). Here’s what the Yankees gave us Thursday, which of course may not be (unlikely is) the full story:

• Volpe had an MRI after the dive and it revealed a partially torn labrum they believed was an old injury he could play through, so he did, and a more recent MRI showed the tear got worse.

• Volpe has aggravated the injury a few times during the season, including this past Sunday (maybe on this play or this play?).

• He received a cortisone shot during the All-Star break and again Wednesday.

• Volpe won’t go on the IL. They’ll follow up on the injury after the season.

“Obviously he had the incident in May where he dove and hurt his shoulder a little bit, felt it,” Aaron Boone said Thursday (video). “At that time we MRIed it, he had a partial labrum tear that I think they felt like was an old injury, and really it was just more aggravating it and probably more the swelling of it. Once that got out of there, he was good to go.

“He’s aggravated it maybe a couple times – Sunday being one of them – and each time it’s just added swelling,” Boone added. “It’s a swelling issue. He said something the other day about it, we MRIed it, shows a little bit more of a labrum tear, but nothing that we think is gonna land him on the IL or nothing that we think he can’t continue to play through.”

If I'm understanding this correctly, the labrum tear was a preexisting injury Volpe aggravated on the dive in May. He continued to play through it, aggravated it a few more times during the season, and ultimately made the tear worse. Volpe, Boone, and the Yankees consistently downplayed the injury. They’re not the only team that downplays manageable injuries, and clearly Volpe was healthy enough to perform at some level, but my dudes, how are you just now handling this, in September?

The Yankees treat Volpe like he’s the second face of the franchise – I can’t ever remember them defending a player as much and as doggedly as they do Volpe – and they let him play through a partial labrum tear to the point that it made the tear worse, all while he performed like one of the worst players in baseball? With multiple aggravations and reaggravations along the way, no less! What was the upside here? Did it really outweigh the downside? The injury management the last few years has been on par with the Wilpon era Mets, I swear. 

Volpe was out of Wednesday’s lineup and that day Boone said they’re in “day-to-day mode” at shortstop, which suggested José Caballero could begin taking playing time away from Volpe on merit, but now we know these last two days on the bench are due to the shoulder. So again, Boone lied about an injury and his lineup decisions. Why should we believe anything this team says about Aaron Judge’s flexor? Why should we believe anything they say ever? What credibility do they have? None. The answer is none.

The injury could certainly explain Volpe’s trouble this year offensively and defensively. It’s his left shoulder, his front/power shoulder when hitting, and his hard-hit ability cratered immediately after the dive in May. This spike in late-July/early-August looks like a “that cortisone shot during the All-Star break felt great!” bump:

It’s also possible the left shoulder injury has contributed to Volpe’s throwing trouble. If there’s discomfort there, sure, it could affect his mechanics, he could be favoring it in some way, etc. It happens. I’m not sure Volpe’s tendency to play back on every ground ball can be blamed on the shoulder, but I can see how it might affect his throwing even while being his non-throwing shoulder.

"Not much,” Boone said when asked about the injury possibly affecting Volpe’s performance (video). “I feel like he's been in a good spot physically. I think everybody deals with certain things, so it's impossible to say this affected something this much or didn't at all. I don't know how you can possibly know that, but I don't think it's been a major factor in his performance or his ability to swing the bat or his ability to go to the post every day. That's my sense."

Injuries are part of the game. Sometimes your ace feels a pop in his elbow, your shortstop lands weirdly on his shoulder, or your right fielder feels his forearm grab on a throw. Injuries happen and you deal with them, but injuries happen to the Yankees and they seem to deal with them in the most incompetent way imaginable. They so badly want Volpe to be good and yet they handled a partial labrum tear (!) in his shoulder by playing him constantly. He leads the Yankees in games played and innings in the field! How much better would this team be with, say, league average injury management? 

Perhaps this is cynical of me, but the Yankees have their excuse now, right? “He’s a tough kid who played through some things, and we’re excited for Volpe to have a healthy season in 2026.” I can hear it now. The Yankees will blame Volpe’s disaster season on the injury the same way they’ll blame not winning the World Series on Gerrit Cole being hurt, assuming they don’t win the World Series (always the most likely outcome in any given season). This team loves nothing more than to hide behind the injury/can't handle New York excuse.

I guess the upside here is Wednesday’s cortisone shot will work as well as the one at the All-Star break seemed to work, and Volpe gets hot just in time for the postseason. The downside is he’ll need surgery on the shoulder after the season because these idiots let him play with a partial tear in his labrum for four months, and it has a long-term impact on whatever meager production he already provides. The Angels or Rockies would be mocked endlessly for managing an injury to an important young player this way, and there will be zero consequences for the people who allowed it to happen. Inept. They are inept.

2. Weekday thoughts. The Yankees got six innings of two-run ball from Will Warren on Tuesday and six innings of two-run ball from Carlos Rodón on Wednesday, and were outscored 23-3 in those two-games. They were only the second set of back-to-back losses by 10+ runs in Yankees history, joining Aug. 27-28, 1988, against the Angels. (The Highlanders did it once in 1908 too.) Thankfully the offense finally showed up Thursday, and Ryan Yarbrough restored order to the bullpen. The Yankees scored almost as many runs Thursday (nine) as they did during the first five games of the homestand combined (11). They’re 5-4 three series into this four-series stretch against almost certain AL postseason teams. One series to go. Here are a few thoughts on the Tigers series. 

Remember when the Yankees had good bullpens?

I went to Tuesday’s game as a fan because my brother had not been to a game yet this season and it was his birthday the other day, so I treated him and we went. We were rewarded with that. I used to be one of those people who never left early. When I was younger I waited out every rain delay, watched every pitch of every blowout, etc. No more though. Life is too short to sit through Mark Leiter Jr. walking in runs. (We left after Kerry Carpenter’s triple.)

“It got away from us,” Aaron Boone told Bryan Hoch about Tuesday’s game. “It’s not like we got hit a lot all over the yard. Just some balls finding some holes, but too many free passes."

Fernando Cruz and Leiter became the first set of teammates to allow at least four runs without recording an out since 2010, and only the 12th set of teammates to do it all-time. Nine runs allowed, including seven before an out was recorded in the inning, with only four balls leaving the infield. Four walks, a hit batsman, a wild pitch. It was pure baseball torture. I’d rather watch them give up rockets. At least that would feel earned.

Wednesday’s meltdown was every bit as ugly as Tuesday’s and that night the bullpen did get “hit a lot all over the yard,” as Boone put it. Leiter pitched again for some reason. Camilo Doval was scored upon via his own run and/or an insurance run for the ninth time in 16 appearances as a Yankee. Tim Hill gave up his first homer to a lefty since May 2023. Luke Weaver continued his recent run of shittiness. Why did Leiter/Doval pitch down two and Weaver down seven (not that it would’ve mattered)? Only Boone knows.

“I have a lot of confidence in their ability and their stuff, but we’ve got to bring it together,” Boone told Hoch about the bullpen after Wednesday’s game. “We haven’t done that consistently enough yet. Can we do it? That’s what we’re going to find out, and that’s what we’re going to need to do if we’re going to make a big run at this.”

The bullpen has been a liability all season and the Yankees did not adequately address it at the deadline. They tried, but 1-for-3 on reliever trades isn’t good enough. Doval has been demoted out of high leverage work and Jake Bird has been demoted to Triple-A, where he hasn’t pitched well (11.1 IP, 6 H, 11 R, 9 BB, 13 K, 1 HR, 4 HBP). Here are the bullpen deadline additions the last five years:

• 2025: Bird, Doval, and David Bednar

• 2024: Leiter and Enyel De Los Santos

• 2023: Keynan Middleton

• 2022: Scott Effross and Lou Trivino

• 2021: Clay Holmes and Joely Rodríguez 

Wandy Peralta was an April trade in 2021. Even if we include him, that’s too many whiffs. Too many trades that didn’t provide the needed impact, and that’s to say nothing of offseason trades (looking at you, Devin Williams). You can (and I did!) justify every single one of those moves at the time. Ultimately, this is a results-based business, and too many of these trades did not provide the desired results.

I’m not talking about the prospects the Yankees gave up either. I don’t care about them. I care that the Yankees are either not identifying the right pitchers, not getting the most out of them, or both. The front office of course deserves blame. So does Matt Blake. He’s the pitching guy at the MLB level. It can’t be Matt Blake is a genius when a pitcher works out and Brian Cashman’s fault when one doesn’t.

Tuesday and Wednesday were the first time in Yankees’ history the bullpen allowed 9+ runs in back-to-back games. Performances like that are always anomalous. That just isn’t the norm for even the worst bullpens. There is a much larger issue in play here though: The Yankees aren’t good at building bullpens anymore. Here are the bullpen’s ranks during the Judge era (ignoring the fake 2020 season):

I don’t think Boone is a good bullpen manager, but this isn’t all on him. Look what he has to work with. It’s not his fault four relievers are similar changeup/splitter guys who rely on chase (Cruz, Leiter, Weaver, Williams) and give hitters the same look over and over. It’s not his fault the bullpen ranks 27th in fastball velocity (it was 30th until Bednar and Doval arrived). Boone has been given a poorly put together bullpen.

Can the Yankees win the World Series with this bullpen? Of course they can. It may not seem like it, and it may be unlikely, but the most heavily used relievers throw 10-15 innings in the postseason, and trying to predict any reliever’s next 10-15 innings is a waste of time. In the big picture though, the last two regular seasons tell us the bullpen building magic is gone. It is no longer a strength.

Miscellany

Aaron Judge made an 81.4 mph throw (video) during that mess of a seventh inning Tuesday. It was far and away his hardest throw since returning to the field, more than 10 mph harder than any throw he made last weekend against the Blue Jays. A good sign, I hope … Speaking of Judge, his first homer Thursday (video) was his 18th first inning homer of the season, tying the single-season record held by himself (2024) and Alex Rodriguez (2001). 16 first inning at-bats remain to set that obscure record … Giancarlo Stanton’s homer Thursday (video) was his 20th of the season. The 2025 Yankees are the 14th team in history with seven 20-homer guys. Only the 2019 Twins (eight) had more. Anthony Volpe has 19 homers. Can he get one more with his partially torn labrum to tie those 2019 Twins? (No one else on the Yankees has more than 10 homers) … Trent Grisham has had an incredible season, and I am normally cool with swinging 3-0, but that 3-0 swing Tuesday night was very dumb. The calculus changes when the best hitter in the world is on deck. Two on, two out, 3-0 count with Judge looming, you have to take at least one strike. The weak inning-ending fly out in the fifth inning of a 2-2 game took the wind out of the stadium’s sails. There was a palpable vibe shift after that … Great bounceback start for Cam Schlittler on Thursday: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 7 K (video). The Blue Jays fouled off a lot of pitches and really wore him down last time out. It looked like the Tigers were going to do the same in the second inning Thursday, but Schlittler settled down and completed six innings. He’s my Game 3 starter, if needed … Wednesday’s homer made no difference to the final outcome, but it was the sixth for Austin Wells in his last 16 games. He had six home runs in his previous 49 games. Ben Rice started seven times at catcher in a 11-game span from Aug. 9-21. Wells was terrible offensively at the time, though I wonder how much of that quasi-benching was just letting his hand heal? Maybe that has contributed to the recent power surge? … And finally, I liked batting Austin Slater leadoff against the lefty opener Thursday on the assumption Grisham (or Jasson Domínguez) would pinch-hit for him once the righty bulk guy came in, which of course he didn’t. Slater wound up driving in a run with a single against the righty later in the game. Go figure. Boone got halfway to a good idea, didn’t do the other half, and it still worked out. Feels like he’s the master at that.

Injury updates

Brent Headrick (forearm) has made three rehab appearances with Triple-A Scranton (3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K). He can come off the IL at any time, though I think the Yankees are keeping him on rehab so they can put him on the MLB roster right away, if necessary. Activate and option him, and you have to wait 15 days to bring him back up unless he’s replacing an injured player. Keeping Headrick on IL/rehab means you can activate him and put him on the roster whenever you want a fresh arm without the 15-day waiting period. He gets big league pay and service time while on the IL, so he’s not complaining. The Yankees maintain some roster flexibility and Headrick “stays” in the big leagues. I’m not certain this is what’s happening, but it would make sense. Otherwise it seems like he’s ready to be activated. (Headrick’s 30-day rehab window will cover the rest of the regular season. The Yankees can do this the rest of September if they want.)

Up next

The final series in this four-series gauntlet and also the final road trip of the regular season. 10 games through Boston, Minnesota, and Baltimore. This weekend at Fenway Park will be the last time the Yankees play a team with a winning record until the postseason. Here’s the weekend ahead:

• Friday at Red Sox: RHP Luis Gil vs. RHP Lucas Giolito (7pm ET on Apple TV+)

• Saturday at Red Sox: LHP Max Fried vs. RHP Brayan Bello (4pm ET on YES, MLB)

• Sunday at Red Sox: RHP Will Warren vs. LHP Garrett Crochet (7pm on ESPN)

• Monday at Twins: TBA and TBA (7:40pm ET on YES)

The mostly likely outcome right now is Yankees vs. Red Sox in the Wild Card Series, and this series will go a long way in determining whether that series is in Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park. The Yankees are one game up in the loss column, though the Red Sox have the tiebreaker, so it is the slimmest of leads. Really need to win this series this weekend. At minimum, don’t get swept.

3. Rapid fire thoughts. Good thing I got my Arizona Fall League preview out Tuesday. The rosters were released Wednesday, almost three weeks earlier than they were announced last year. The Yankees are sending RHP Bryce Cunningham, RHP Brady Kirtner, IF Coby Morales, RHP Hueston Morrill, C Manuel Palencia, RHP Cade Smith, RHP Adam Stone, and IF Enmanuel Tejeda to the AzFL. Cunningham, Smith, and Tejeda are the notables. They were all top 30 prospects coming into the season and they all missed time with injury this year. Morrill has allowed five runs (four earned) in 47.2 innings this season. That’s a 0.76 ERA. The underlying numbers are not that good (3.24 FIP), but still good. Cunningham’s the big one. Last year’s second rounder has one of the best changeups in the minors and we didn’t see it much this year because of his injuries.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Seamus asks: Everyone knows the Yankees are great at stealing signs legally. John Schneider admitted it after the Ben Rice homer against Scherzer. He didn’t seem mad about it, as he shouldn’t, since they are doing this legally. My question is, why are the Yankees so obvious about it with the arm waving? Wouldn’t it be an advantage to try and be a little more conspicuous so teams aren’t easily aware they are doing this?

Adam asks: The Yankees tend to play the long game, often to their own detriment. Do you think they are being so blatant about the sign relating do they can do it in October even if they don’t have the pitches so they can get in the pitchers head? I’m not advocating for it btw. 

Gonna lump these two together. The only reason I can come up with for being so obvious is time, or a lack thereof. It seems like, when the Yankees have the pitch, it’s usually because they got a peak at the grip inside the pitcher’s glove. There’s just not much time to pick that up and relay it to the hitter more subtly (tugging at the ear flap of your helmet was a go-to in the pre-PitchCom days). Think about Sunday. Cody Bellinger picked up Max Scherzer’s grip from first base, relayed it to Aaron Judge at second, and Judge relayed it to Rice at home. A lot that needed to happen in a short period of time. Waving your arms is the fastest and most unambiguous way to communicate all that. 

“You want to make sure the guy sees it,” Austin Wells told Gary Phillips about the arm waving after Sunday’s game. “Because when you’re trying to hit 95 with movement and four other pitches, you’re really locked in on the pitcher. So I guess if you have (the pitch) and (the hitter) doesn’t see it, then what’s the point of having it? We just want to make sure we know what we’re doing.”

Something more subtle would be ideal and the Yankees know that (right?). You don’t want the other team to know you have their pitches. And yeah, waving your arms when you don’t have the pitches could be advantageous too, just to potentially get in the pitcher’s head and unnerve him (and maybe even get the other team to change things up in a way that doesn’t disguise their pitches as well). I keep waiting for a pitcher to get mad and throw at a batter, though the game isn’t really like that anymore, plus it’s late in the season and these games are too important. Can’t be giving out free baserunners, you know?

Several asked: Should the Yankees play Aaron Judge in left field while his throwing is limited?

This crossed my mind because left field is the place to play an outfielder with a bad arm. Left fielders don’t have to make that long throw to third base, and a runner rounding third and heading home can’t see the play develop and adjust his lane accordingly. Yes, Judge in left makes sense. The question is how comfortable is he in left field? Judge played five games in left field last year (his first MLB action there) and looked like a fish out of water. On one play he gave up on a fly ball thinking it would slice foul, only to watch it drop in for a ground rule double (video). If Judge is not comfortable in left field, then you’re only going to make things worse. Yes to Judge in left in theory. In practice, it may not work out so well.

Cory asks: Are you nervous or uncomfortable with the Yankees playing Judge in the field? I think the risk of his flexor strain turning into UCL damage may outweigh the reward given where we are in the season. Maybe it’s low and I’ve just lost confidence in the Yankees ability to manage injuries. What percentage of players (particularly hitters) with flexor strains end up needing TJ surgery?

Oh, I’m very nervous, especially with the way this team deals with injuries (Cory sent this question in before the latest Anthony Volpe stuff too). Uncomfortable isn’t the right word, I don’t think. I don’t think the Yankees are taking an unnecessary risk based on the information we have. They’re playing to win a World Series and their best chance to do that involves Aaron Judge being in the lineup and in the outfield given the alternative (i.e. Giancarlo Stanton playing the field full-time). It sucks, but what are they supposed to do? Shut Judge down so he’s (possibly) healthy for their (possible) postseason run in 2026? I’m nervous and I hate this, but I think it’s the right thing.

As for the second question, I don’t have an answer. I hoped the Baseball Prospectus Recovery Database would be a help here, but a) searching “flexor strain” returned a bunch of hip flexor strains, and b) the data appears incomplete. The only position player flexor strain in the database is Alejandro Kirk in May 2021. That was in his left arm, so his non-throwing arm and his lead arm when hitting, neither of which applies to Judge. Aaron Hicks had a flexor strain in August 2019. He played through it and needed Tommy John surgery a few months later. I’m sure there are plenty of examples both ways. Flexor strains that resolve and flexor strains that lead to UCL surgery. Every case is unique. It sucks, but the situation is what the situation is.

Brian asks: If I set the over/under for Trent G at 5 years $100 mill would you go over or under?

Under. The comp might be Tyler O’Neill? O’Neill had two bad and injury interrupted seasons from 2022-23, then smacked 30 homers in his age 29 season in a favorable home ballpark in 2024. He turned that into a three-year contract worth $49.5M with an opt out after Year 1. Trent Grisham didn’t hit much the last few years, and then this year he’s got 30 homers in his age 28 season in a favorable home ballpark*. O’Neill was a great defender in the past and not so much now. The same applies to Grisham. Maybe O’Neill’s contract is light for Grisham because Grisham is a year younger and doesn’t have the same injury history. I don’t think the difference between the two is $50.5M though. Trent rules but I would not give him $100M. I bet he comes in well under that, with an $80M contract qualifying as “well under” to me.

* Fun fact: Grisham is hitting .197/.318/.380 (101 wRC+) with 12 homers at home and .281/.376/.549 (156 wRC+) with 18 homers on the road. Huh.

Jonathan asks: Hypothetically, suppose that right after Roki Sasaki signed with the Dodgers, the Dodgers called up Cashman and offered Sasaki in a trade. Pretend the Dodgers asked Cashman for Cam Schlittler. I don't think there's much of a question that Cashman makes that trade in mid-January. Now fast forward to today, and pretend the Dodgers call Cashman today and the same trade offer happens right now (and that trade deadlines don't exist). Does Cashman trade Schlittler for Sasaki?  I don't think so. Even if Sasaki is better over the next several years of team control, Schlittler's more important in 2025, isn't he?

Not a chance the Yankees make that trade. Schlittler’s the better pitcher right now and it's not unreasonable to project him to be the better pitcher moving forward. Even before his current shoulder injury, Sasaki’s stuff wasn’t popping, and his fastball was getting hit very hard (.456 xwOBA and 30.0% barrel rate) despite the velocity. There were concerns about the “shape” of his fastball going back a few years and they were on full display earlier this season. Sasaki looks like the kinda guy who might have to spam sliders and splitters to be successful because big league hitters told him the fastball won’t overwhelm. Schlittler is not even a full year older than Sasaki, he doesn’t have the same arm injury history (Sasaki's goes back to at least last season in Japan), and the pitch data models favor him heavily (115 vs. 91 Stuff+). Sasaki is the bigger name, for sure, and I definitely would not close the door on him being a very productive big leaguer, but Schlittler is the better and more valuable player right now.

Jesse asks: I was shocked to look up last week and see Soto closing in on 30 steals. He's never stolen more than 12 before, and his sprint speed is still poor according to Savant. What's going on here? Is it sustainable?

Juan Soto reached 30 steals Tuesday. This is a Mets thing more than a Soto-specific thing. The Mets went into Thursday ranked fifth in stolen bases and with by far the highest stolen base success rate (89%) in baseball even though it’s not a speedy roster. At one point spanning mid-June to mid-August they went 41 for 42 stealing bases, and the one caught stealing wasn’t a real caught stealing. Francisco Lindor got picked off first. The Mets have figured something out here. How to exploit the disengagement limit, how best to pick up on the pitcher’s move, whatever. I don’t follow them too closely so I’m not sure exactly what. No, I don’t think Soto will be a perennial 30-steal guy now, but obviously this is something the Mets are good at, and he’s benefited. It’s not a fluke. The team has helped him in some way

(Send your requests for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com. The random Yankee series is on hiatus, but feel free to send in requests for when it returns.)