Throughout much of the Yankees' 2025 campaign, one overarching question seemed to follow the club: What's wrong with Anthony Volpe? Volpe, one of the club's former top prospects and its starting shortstop in '25, regressed at the plate and in the field, frustrating fans and sparking plenty of questions from the media about his status as the starter. His struggles even prompted general manager Brian Cashman to acquire shortstop José Caballero at the trade deadline.

But after Volpe aggravated a torn labrum in his left shoulder on Sept. 7, it was revealed that he had been playing through discomfort since initially suffering the injury back in May, offering a potential answer to the above question.

However, Yankees manager Aaron Boone and Cashman, speaking to reporters at the Yankees' end of season news conference on Thursday, seemed to disagree on the impact Volpe's injury had on his play.

Boone, after citing the initial reluctance to undergo the shoulder surgery, as well as multiple instances where Volpe aggravated the injury, said he believed it did not affect Volpe's play.

"...I think for the overwhelming majority of the year [the injury] was not affecting his play," Boone said. "There were things like, he would dive on it a certain way, tick it off, aggravate it—I think in some ways, the injury probably got a little bit worse towards the end of the year based on a couple of episodes that happened. But I don't think it was impacting performance.

"And this is something that you can play with, play through. But the finality of getting it fixed now hopefully frees him up to really go dive on it the way he's going to dive on it and make those next level of plays that Anthony makes. And then hopefully because you're fixing something that is hurt on the body, that hopefully it does help performance to go to another level."

Cashman, on the other hand, seemed to once share Boone's sentiment on the Volpe injury, but no longer.

"I personally think now I'm starting to lean more into that yes, it was affecting him," Cashman said. "Because ultimately, he had to have the surgery. None of that was really on the table in-season..."

Cashman went on to explain that, because the injury kept popping up throughout the season amid Volpe's peaks and valleys in performance, and due to the "severe" clean-up needed in Volpe's shoulder that was noted by the doctor who performed the surgery, that he ultimately believed it was "probably" more of an impact than originally thought.

One thing both Cashman and Boone seemed steadfast on: Volpe will continue to be the club's starting shortstop in 2026.

The Yankees will need Volpe to more closely resemble the 2023 and '24 versions of himself than the '25 version to continue to justify their faith in the 24-year-old. After taking home a Gold Glove in '23 and rating as one of the bets defensive shortstops in '24, Volpe was among the worst shortstops in the Statcast metric, Outs Above Average, in '25. At the plate, he posted a wRC+ (an all-encompassing offensive metric) of 83, tied for the sixth-worst in MLB.

Volpe cannot begin hitting for four months, at which point, Boone said the club will reevaluate the shortstop's timeline. In the meantime, Caballero, and any potential infield additions the Yankees make this winter, will hold down the fort at short.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Yankees Brass Seemed to Disagree Whether Anthony Volpe Injury Affected His 2025 Play.

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