The New York Yankees captured their biggest win of the season on Monday by defeating the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, 5-1. In addition to eight brilliant innings from Cam Schlittler, the Yankees were led by a clutch offensive performance by Jose Caballero.
Penciled in at shortstop, Caballero gave the Bronx Bombers a lead they wouldn't relinquish with a three-run home run in the fifth inning; he added a solo shot in the eighth inning as insurance. New York had only three hits in the game, but all were home runs (the third was a Ben Rice solo homer in the ninth inning).
Despite Caballero's heroics, Yankees manager Aaron Boone reiterated that he will continue to rotate Caballero and Anthony Volpe at shortstop. Boone cited Caballero's positional versatility for maintaining this approach.
"It's still day-by-day," Boone said after the game. "In fairness, [Caballero] has been in there a lot more days where I've scratched and something's come up to where I've had to move. But his versatility is so valuable too, especially with what we're going through as a team right now with some guys down."
Jose Caballero vs Anthony Volpe
It is worth mentioning that while the Yankees' fanbase has voiced an overwhelming preference for Caballero over Volpe, the two have provided similar total value. Both have posted 1.1 fWAR on the season, even with Volpe playing in 37 fewer games.
However, the Yankees have a noticeably better record with Caballero playing shortstop (32-18) compared to Volpe (16-20). This should be taken with a grain of salt because Caballero began the season as New York's everyday shortstop and the team was relatively healthy during that time. But there are a few things that contribute to this disparity in team results.
The biggest was on full display last night, and that was Caballero's power. He already set a new career-high with 10 home runs and boasts a .407 slugging percentage as a result. While Volpe has hit 52 homers over his first three seasons, he has just one long ball and a .328 slugging percentage this year.
Caballero additionally has a greater success rate when stealing bases, swiping 20 bags in 27 attempts. This is in contrast to Volpe, who has seven steals in 11 attempts.
There are still areas where Volpe trumps Caballero, though. His walk rate is significantly higher, and he has a .340 on-base percentage as opposed to .304 for Caballero. Volpe's defense at short has also been superior, according to most defensive metrics such as Statcast.
But Caballero's power and baserunning have produced greater impacts than Volpe's skillset has this season. This is indicated by Win Probability Added, with a +1.18 mark for Caballero as opposed to -0.27 for Volpe.
Why the Yankees Should Stop Using Jose Caballero as a Superutility Player
Naturally, the Caballero-Volpe debate is primarily argued through comparing the stats between the two. But the biggest argument in favor of Caballero actually comes from his stats at shortstop compared to other positions, primarily on defense.
Caballero has been a strong superutility player in the past, but the Yankees have tried using him in the outfield for 15 games this year. It hasn't worked, and opponents were exploiting bad throws or suboptimal routes to the ball when he was out there. Even his defense at second and third base haven't been as crisp compared to shortstop.
Although the metrics say that Volpe is the superior defender, the Yankees' defense is actually worse when he and Caballero are both playing because Caballero's defense has suffered outside of shortstop. And as mentioned before, Caballero's better power and baserunning is making more of an impact than the areas where Volpe is excelling.
Ultimately, Caballero's skillset gives the Yankees a greater chance at winning compared to Volpe, even if the stats indicate that the total production is similar. And even though the Yankees are making the effort to put both players in the lineup, this has been to the detriment of the team as indicated by their struggles over the past few weeks.
What Caballero did on Monday against the Rays allowed the Yankees to steal a much-needed game, and unfortunately, Volpe hasn't shown that he can impact a game like that this season even if he occasionally showed it in the past. If the Yankees need to sacrifice better defense at shortstop for these game-changing events, then so be it.
The Yankees will roll with Caballero at shortstop for a second straight game against the Rays on Tuesday. They can reduce their AL East deficit to just two games with a win.
