Anthony Volpe

It was recently announced that Anthony Volpe, who has been the focal point of plenty of criticism, has been playing since early May with a small tear in his left labrum. The Yankees knew Volpe had this injury, and yet continued to allow him to play through it despite putting up some of the worst overall numbers in baseball. This past week he received a cortisone shot because he re-aggravated the injury in the series against Toronto. The big question I am left with is….why? Who benefited from Volpe playing through this injury? He certainly didn’t, the Yankees didn’t, and the fans completely turned on Volpe.

Now I understand not wanting to go right to surgery as that has a lofty recovery time, but not once did anyone say let’s give the kid some time off and see if it heals? Even after trading for a shortstop in Jose Caballero, the Yankees STILL went on to keep starting Volpe even as his struggles continued. So what is the plan here? Is Volpe just going to continue playing hurt and then get surgery and the start of next season? Is he going to lose his job as a baseball player just because the Yankees destroyed any value he had by letting this go on so long? The Yankees managed this injury in one of the most head scratching ways, and it isn’t even the first one this year.

Aaron Judge

Thankfully Aaron Judge did eventually make his way back to right field. His arm just simply is not the defensive asset it was prior to his injury. Now I COMPLETELY understand why Judge hasn’t gotten any sort of procedure done, with no Judge there’s no world series hope. But how different could he look right now if they had simply noticed the injury earlier? He initially hurt the arm on July 22nd against Toronto, and you could see in the exact moment how he winced in pain and continued to do so with every throw. It took 3 more games before the Yankees put Judge on the IR once he couldn’t even throw the ball anymore. Now even back in the outfield his throwing will be affected for the rest of the year, and who knows what we’ll hear needs to be done in the offseason for him to get back to 100%. Again, it makes sense for Judge to stay in the lineup even not at 100%, but had they not let Judge play another 3 games injured, who knows how much better his arm would be.

Gerrit Cole

This one could technically fall on Cole, as the Yankees did get the injury checked out as soon as Cole experienced elbow discomfort in spring training. But it will forever baffle me how injuries like this happen. You mean to tell me not once throughout the offseason did Cole notice his elbow wasn’t 100%? No one from the Yankees reached out to see how offseason workouts and staying in shape was going? Cole ended up needing Tommy John and is missing this entire 2025 season, and his presence is CERTAINLY missed. Seriously, I will never understand how players can come back from an offseason for spring training, and suddenly have a season ending injury pop up out of nowhere. I’m no professional athlete or sports doctor, but I believe making sure your players are healthy in the offseason and will be good for spring training is just common sense.

It takes a lot to go your way to win a world series, but at some point there has to be a serious conversation as to why this continues to happen.