When the Yankees learned that Anthony Volpe had been playing through much of 2025 with a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder and would miss the start of the season while rehabbing from surgery, it’s a good thing they had his readymade replacement on the big league roster. Thanks to a shrewd piece of Deadline business last year, the Yankees had the luxury of slotting back-to-back AL steals leader José Caballero at short, allowing them to not rush Volpe’s return. Caballero was a spark plug when
he arrived in the Bronx, and though he started this campaign ice cold at the plate, the bat is starting to heat up.
We join Caballero with one out in the top of the fifth. Astros starter Mike Burrows entered this game with a 6.75 ERA but was largely stymying the Yankees lineup and would tie his career-high with eight strikeouts. The score is tied at one apiece, Trent Grisham’s third inning solo shot nullifying Isaac Paredes’ RBI single in the first.
Burrows’ two fastball combo of four-seamer and sinker had been pretty effective to this point, so it’s no surprise to see him start this AB with a sinker low in the zone.
This is an excellent take from Caballero, the sinker landing just a couple inches below the bottom of the strike zone. The pitch looks like a strike for most of its journey toward home, only dropping in the final 15 feet or so, so credit to Caballero for a disciplined take.
Caballero is a noted high ball hitter, so Burrows is determined to continue pitching him low in the zone. Perhaps if he can start a pitch with a higher aiming point but more downward break, he can get the outcome he’s hunting.
This is just a devilish changeup down and in. Caballero is completely fooled and swing early and over the top as if he’s swinging at a fastball down the middle. You didn’t used to see a ton of righty-on-righty changeups, but when executed like this down and in, it is a nearly unhittable pitch given how much harder it is to pick up the swing than a breaking ball.
Now that he has sped up Caballero’s bat and has him looking down and in, Burrows looks to execute a sinker to the same spot as the previous changeup hoping that the increased velocity will make Caballero late.
He almost gets Caballero to chase, but this pitch is just a little too far in off the plate to fully fool Caballero. It’s good pitch location recognition by Caballero to realize this sinker is tailing in for a ball and stop his swing in time.
Now that he has seen two disciplined takes by Caballero on sinkers low and on the inner half, Burrows returns to the pitch that made Caballero look silly — the changeup.
Once again, Burrows executed the changeup in the lower half of the zone. Once again, Caballero is way out in front.
By this point it is plainly obvious that Caballero is selling out for an in-zone heater about belt high or a little above. His pair of impressive takes on sinkers just out of the zone and two super early swings on changeups in the zone allow the pitcher and catcher to narrow in on the pitch and location he is hunting. That gives Burrows two choices in a two-strike situation. He can throw him the fastball he wants but in a location that’s hard to hit or he can make an offspeed pitch look like a fastball in Caballero’s hunting zone before allowing the movement and velocity to fool the hitter. He opts for the former, looking to dot a four-seamer on the corner low and away.
He yanks this pitch to the glove side as he tries to hump up for more velocity, making for Caballero’s easiest take of this encounter on a non-competitive fastball in the other batter’s box.
Caballero has worked the count to full but the count leverage still favors the pitcher given the pair of whiffs he was able to induce on the changeup. He can throw another one in the zone hoping for the trifecta of early swings, but instead he opts to climb the ladder with the four-seamer, essentially showing Caballero the pitch he is hunting but with the intention of throwing it above hitting level.
Big mistake. Despite executing this four-seamer right to the top ledge of the strike zone, Caballero is all over it, roping a line drive into the Crawford Boxes for his third home run of the year to put the Yankees on top, 2-1. The Yankees have preached hunting a specific pitch and passing the baton if that pitch doesn’t come, and Caballero executed that strategy to a T.
Here’s the full AB:
There was talk about Caballero’s work with Driveline over the offseason to increase his bat speed, but I’m not sure that’s what’s behind this recent power surge, Caballero so far posting the lowest average swing speed (68.7 mph) and fast swing rate (3.6-percent) of his career. Instead, I think this is the outcome of a shift to a more high-contact approach, Caballero trading out a lot of his walks for batted balls. The more balls you put in play, the higher your chance that a few more might leave the yard.
Caballero’s bat getting hot coincides with Volpe’s looming return — since it was announced on April 13th that Volpe would begin his rehab assignment, Caballero is batting .375 with three home runs, three doubles, six stolen bases, a 1.037 OPS, and a 188 wRC+ in 13 games. To his credit, Caballero said all the right things about his returning teammate following this performance in Houston, with nothing but encouragement and optimism that Volpe’s presence can only be a good thing for the big league club. In his latest update, Aaron Boone acknowledged that Caballero “is playing at a really high level… Bottom line is, Josie has earned a lot of opportunities and has been right in the middle of us winning a lot of games,” while also maintaining that there is “nothing imminent” when it comes to Volpe’s timetable, refusing to commit to his return during the upcoming homestand. Caballero performing well allows the Yankees to take their time on a Volpe decision, and it is encouraging to hear Boone hint a willingness to play the hot hand.
