NEW YORK — The Yankees walked off the field Wednesday night with the kind of win that usually quiets questions. But the 6-1 win over the Colorado Rockies fails to overshadow the decision to bring back Anthony Volpe.
George Lombard Jr. broke it open in the third inning with an opposite-field grand slam off Tomoyuki Sugano. It was the Yankees’ first grand slam of the season and made Lombard, at 21 years and 99 days, the youngest Yankee to hit one since Mickey Mantle in 1952. Luis García Jr. opened the scoring with his 29th home run in the second, and Cody Bellinger added his 13th in the eighth.
The victory moved the Yankees to 83-62, kept them four games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and left 17 regular-season games. MLB’s official standings had New York in the American League’s top wild-card spot. For one night, the scoreboard looked orderly. The roster situation was anything but.
By the final out, the Yankees were already moving toward another infield change with postseason consequences. It followed weeks of position shuffling and arrived only days after a former Yankees star questioned how strongly New York pressure can surround personnel decisions. Wednesday’s result settled the game, but it did not settle who would occupy a key infield spot in the final stretch. That tension followed them home.
A roster move arrives with old pressure attached
The planned answer is Anthony Volpe. The Yankees are placing Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the 10-day injured list with a sprained right thumb and plan to recall Volpe from Triple-A on Thursday. Chisholm will have no baseball activities for seven to 10 days before being reevaluated, putting the rest of his regular season in doubt.
Chisholm hurt the thumb Tuesday while diving into second base during the Yankees’ 5-3 win over Colorado. He had been batting .295 with an .832 OPS and 10 steals over his previous 29 games. His current season line is .232 with 19 home runs, 55 RBIs and 40 stolen bases.
Volpe had already forced a baseball case at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Since his Aug. 4 demotion, he has hit .284/.381/.642 with 10 home runs and 21 RBIs in 28 games. Those 10 homers account for all but one of his 11 home runs across his 2026 minor league work. MiLB’s official player page lists him at .260 with 11 homers, 29 RBIs, 12 steals and an .850 OPS overall in the minors this season.
Boone praised how Volpe handled the demotion and the request to learn second and third base. The manager stressed that the response mattered as much as the numbers.
“I know he’s been a complete pro and completely got after it down there. That’s not an easy thing to do when you’ve been the guy in the big leagues and you gotta go back,” Boone said.
Red-hot Volpe sharpens Yankees’ decision
The most striking comparison is simple. Volpe hit one home run in 56 major league games this season before his Aug. 4 demotion. He then hit 10 homers in 28 games after returning to Triple-A, nine more home runs in exactly half as many games. The Yankees still must determine how much of that power carries from the International League to major league pitching.
Jasson Domínguez summed up the surge with a clubhouse joke that quickly followed Volpe back into the Yankees conversation.
“He became Barry Bonds all of a sudden,” Domínguez said.
Second base changes the Volpe question
Volpe is also returning in a different defensive role. Lombard remains at shortstop after replacing him last month, while Volpe made 19 Triple-A starts at second base and committed one error in 162 1/3 innings entering Wednesday. José Caballero started there in the 6-1 win, and Amed Rosario gives Boone another option.
Lombard was asked after his grand slam whether Volpe’s return could feel awkward after the rookie took his former job. His answer removed any public sign of a clubhouse issue.
“We’re all in the baseball world. We know what the baseball world is like – anything can happen. Excited to have him, excited to work together,” Lombard said.
Ex-MVP’s warning meets a stronger baseball case
Volpe’s return comes only days after Josh Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP and former Yankees third baseman, criticized the forces around personnel decisions in New York.
On his Get It Done League podcast, Donaldson used Volpe as one example while arguing that loud fan pressure can accelerate calls for players to be promoted, demoted or moved on from.
He told: “When Volpe came up, they wanted Volpe. Boom boom, he had his run. When he wasn’t playing well… The fans really do hold a unique sense for that team. Pull for that team with that front office, because more than any other team, if there’s a guy that needs to be called up and the fans are barking loud enough, he gets called up. If a guy needs to get sent down, released, whatever, he’s gone. The fans, they control that.”
Donaldson did not say Volpe was a bad player or that the Yankees should not recall him. His criticism was about how the organization operates under New York scrutiny.
This move has a direct trigger in Chisholm’s injury and a performance case in Volpe’s Triple-A surge, making the timing notable without making Donaldson’s argument the reason for the transaction.
Yankees turn the injury into a late-season audition
Volpe is expected to return after batting .240 with a .647 OPS, one homer and 19 RBIs in 56 major league games following left shoulder surgery. The Yankees now have an injury-created opening, a hot Triple-A bat and a new defensive fit to test at the same time.
The series finale against Colorado at Yankee Stadium could provide the first look at how Boone divides the infield. Lombard still owns shortstop. Chisholm is sidelined. Volpe is back in the major league picture, and the Yankees have 17 games to determine whether his Triple-A reset can help a postseason roster.
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