José Caballero is healthy again, and as Aaron Boone indicated when he first went down with a fractured right middle finger, Caballero remained the starting shortstop Friday against the Rays in The Bronx — with Anthony Volpe still on the roster, but not in the lineup.
How the Yankees plan to utilize Volpe remains to be seen, since he didn’t play any position besides shortstop in his minor league rehab assignment nor after he was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before he got the call to the majors to replace the injured Caballero.
Volpe had some encouraging games at the plate and defensively — as well as on the bases — but he entered Friday hitless in his last eight plate appearances with three strikeouts and botched a double play ball at short in Thursday’s loss to Toronto.
Caballero had impressed through his first 40 games with all aspects of his play.
The Yankees expected him to be a pest on the bases and to hold his own on offense and at short before Volpe returned from offseason surgery on his left shoulder and reclaimed the starting shortstop job — with Caballero reverting back to the super-utility role he was acquired last year from Tampa Bay to play — but Caballero instead provided above average defense and was a spark in the lineup on an everyday basis.
All that led Boone to say, when Caballero went on the IL, that he would likely get his job back upon his return to health.
“He’s played as well as anyone out there,’’ Boone said at the time. “That would be my expectation.”
