{"id":684268,"date":"2026-04-27T16:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/684268\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T16:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:51:15","slug":"yankees-notes-stanton-volpe-dejong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/684268\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Notes: Stanton, Volpe, DeJong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giancarlo Stanton<\/a> has been absent from the Yankees\u2019 lineup since an early exit due to discomfort in his right calf Friday night. The team hasn\u2019t announced a formal move regarding the slugging designated hitter but is expected to make a call on a potential IL stint one way or another prior to tonight\u2019s game, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post<\/a>. With outfielder Jasson Dominguez<\/a> reportedly on his way to join the big league club, it seems likely that Stanton will require at least a brief trip to the injured list.<\/p>\n

Stanton, 36, is out to a .256\/.302\/.442 start with three homers through his first 96 trips to the plate. It\u2019s not his typical level of production, but Stanton\u2019s 30.2% strikeout rate \u2014 while still way higher than the 22.2% league average \u2014 is down from last year\u2019s 34.2% mark. His batted-ball numbers remain excellent; he\u2019s averaging 94.1 mph off the bat with a strong 44.3% hard-hit rate and a huge 18% barrel rate, per Statcast.<\/p>\n

If Stanton heads to the injured list, the Yankees can use the vacant DH spot to get Dominguez some at-bats and perhaps get partial days off for the outfield trio of Aaron Judge<\/a>, Cody Bellinger<\/a> and Trent Grisham<\/a>. That quartet can rotate through the three outfield spots and the designated hitter slot.<\/p>\n

The Yankees optioned righty Luis Gil<\/a> over the weekend, so there\u2019s no need to make a corresponding 26-man roster move to get Dominguez up to the majors. However, swapping Dominguez out for Gil would leave the Yankees with 14 position players to 12 pitchers. A second move to subtract a position player from the roster in favor of a pitcher (e.g. placing Stanton on the IL and recalling Gil or another arm from Triple-A) would make sense.<\/p>\n

There could be other roster machinations in the works, too. Shortstop Anthony Volpe<\/a>, who\u2019s spent the first month of the season on the injured list while finishing off rehab from shoulder surgery, is expected to return this week, per Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com<\/a>. Romero suggests that Volpe will play a couple more games with the Yankees\u2019 Double-A team this week and be activated Wednesday or Thursday.<\/p>\n

Volpe, who\u2019ll be 25 tomorrow, struggled through the worst season of his career in 2025. The former top prospect slashed just .212\/.272\/.391 in 153 games and 596 plate appearances. He connected on 19 home runs and swiped 18 bags, but Volpe saw diminished contact levels within the strike zone and had his worst career performance against fastballs. The dip in production was a mystery for much of the season, but manager Aaron Boone<\/a> revealed in September that Volpe had a \u201csmall\u201d tear of the labrum in his left shoulder and had been battling shoulder pain since May. He underwent surgery to repair the tear in October.<\/p>\n

Through his first eight rehab games, Volpe has turned in a .308\/.333\/.423 batting line. It\u2019s only 23 plate appearances, but it\u2019s an encouraging small-sample stretch for the young shortstop. His return will push the Yankees to make some decisions on\u00a0 the roster.<\/p>\n

Jose Caballero<\/a> has filled in plenty capably at shortstop in Volpe\u2019s absence. He\u2019s batting .271\/.314\/.417 with three homers and a hefty 11 steals through his first 27 games. Caballero isn\u2019t going anywhere, both due to that production and the fact that he\u2019s controllable through the 2029 season. Volpe could push him to a utility role, but he\u2019s not going to lose his roster spot. Bench infielder Amed Rosario<\/a> has had a nice start and is hitting both righties and lefties well; he\u2019s safe, too.<\/p>\n

The simplest path would be to send Dominguez back to Scranton when Volpe returns. If the Yankees want to give Dominguez a bigger look after he hit .326\/.415\/.478 with a 12.3% walk rate and just a 15.1% strikeout rate in 106 Triple-A plate appearances, there are alternatives to consider. Paul Goldschmidt<\/a> was brought back to platoon with Ben Rice<\/a> at first base but hasn\u2019t hit lefties in a small sample this year. Outfielder Randal Grichuk<\/a> has had similar struggles. Both players have tallied only 33 plate appearances and have track records of note, however.<\/p>\n

If the Yankees don\u2019t want to go with an early boot for either veteran, they could option catcher J.C. Escarra<\/a> to Triple-A and use Rice and and Austin Wells<\/a> as their two catchers. Rice hasn\u2019t gotten behind the plate at all this season but caught 229 innings last year and has plenty of minor league experience. It\u2019s always possible that another injury will pop up between now and Volpe\u2019s planned activation window and make the answer more straightforward.<\/p>\n

One other infielder to keep in mind is veteran Paul DeJong<\/a>. He\u2019s currently in Triple-A on a minor league contract but can opt out of his deal at the end of the month. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports<\/a> that DeJong has already informed the Yankees that he\u2019ll be taking the opt-out opportunity if he\u2019s not added to the roster.<\/p>\n

DeJong, still only 32 years old, has belted six homers in his first 78 plate appearances with the Yankees\u2019 Scranton affiliate in 2026. The longtime Cardinals shortstop is batting .213\/.359\/.541 with a huge 17.9% walk rate against a manageable 21.8% strikeout rate in that time. Like Volpe, Caballero and Rosario, DeJong is a right-handed hitting infielder. He\u2019s a more capable option at shortstop than Rosario but typically a lighter hitter.<\/p>\n

The presence of three other righty-swinging infielders on the roster doesn\u2019t bode well for DeJong\u2019s chances, but it\u2019s possible there\u2019ll be some shuffling to accommodate him. If not, DeJong can take a longstanding track record of strong defense and a hot minor league start to the open market and see if an infield-needy team has a spot for him \u2014 or at least a less-crowded path to breaking through than the one he currently faces in the Bronx.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giancarlo Stanton has been absent from the Yankees\u2019 lineup since an early exit due to discomfort in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[1205,5,731,310,1121,1226,118,1448],"class_list":["post-684268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-anthony-volpe","tag-baseball","tag-ben-rice","tag-giancarlo-stanton","tag-j-c-escarra","tag-paul-dejong","tag-paul-goldschmidt","tag-randal-grichuk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116477708467052142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}