Yankees' Anthony Volpe has been playing with partially torn labrum in left shoulder

The Yankees on Thursday revealed that struggling shortstop Anthony Volpe has been playing since early May with a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder and has had at least two cortisone shots — one during the All-Star break in July and one on Wednesday.

Manager Aaron Boone said he doesn’t think the injury has affected Volpe’s play. He is expected to return once the effects of the shot wear off, perhaps as early as this weekend in Boston,  but might continue to share the position with Jose Caballero.

Volpe is having the worst of his three big-league seasons and statistically has been one of the worst offensive and defensive players in baseball. He is batting .206 with 19 home runs, 70 RBIs and a .661 OPS.  He has committed 19 errors, the second-highest total of any shortstop. Since June 25, Volpe is batting .171 with a .573 OPS in 63 games.

Boone said the initial injury concern cropped up when Volpe tried to make a diving play on May 3. Volpe said he felt a “pop,” but the Yankees said an MRI was basically clean, and he was back in the lineup two days later.

On Thursday, Boone said that MRI showed “a partial labrum tear that I think they felt like was an old injury.” He said on Thursday that Volpe “kind of reaggravated it on a dive” on Sunday. The Yankees were off on Monday. Volpe played on Tuesday, but Caballero started on Wednesday and was in Thursday night’s starting lineup.

“He’s aggravated it maybe a couple times, Sunday being one of them,” Boone said. “And each time it’s kind of added to some . . . I think it’s just a swelling issue. So he said something the other day about it. We MRI’d it. Shows a little bit more of a labrum tear, but nothing that we think is going to land him on the IL or nothing that he can’t continue to play through. He already feels better today. I don’t expect it to be an issue. But that being said, if he goes out there and aggravates it again, we may have to look at it more. We’ll MRI it again regardless at the end of the season. But right now, it looks like he should be good to go in the next couple days.”

As to whether Volpe’s play has been affected by the injury, Boone said: “How could you possibly know that? But I don’t think it’s been a major factor in his performance, or his ability to swing the bat, or his ability to kind of go to the post every day.

“I mean, anything that bothers you can affect anything, right? But, like, how he’s responded today from the medicine and cortisone shot is in line with how he did last time, so I expect him to be OK in the next couple of days and it not to be an issue so long as he doesn’t aggravate it in different ways.”

Boone said he does not think Volpe — who was not available for comment before the Yankees hosted the Tigers — will need offseason surgery.

“No, not necessarily,” he said. “Now that could change. We get to the end of the season and we MRI it again, or he does something that aggravates it, something more, or hurts it something more, that’s possible. But right now, I don’t think that’s the expectation.”

Will Volpe get back his shortstop job when he is ready to play? The Yankees have 16 games left in the regular season beginning Friday and are hoping for an extended postseason run.

“Obviously, we’re down to the end,” Boone said. “And as I’ve said, it’s kind of all hands on deck and [we’ll] do what we think is best day in, day out.”

Notes & quotes: Aaron Judge hit 413- and 434-foot shots into the Tigers’ bullpen in the first three innings Thursday to tie Joe DiMaggio for fourth on the franchise home run list at 361. He has hit 46 homers this season. Giancarlo Stanton hit his 20th, a 429-foot shot into the leftfield bleachers.

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.