Yankees top prospect George Lombard Jr. to play in All-Star Futures Game
Yankees George Lombard Jr. hits a home run in the third inning of a spring training game against the Houston Astros at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., on March 1. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
TORONTO — George Lombard Jr.’s 2025 season started in the headlines and has remained there.
From being invited to his first big-league camp in February to an electric three weeks during Grapefruit League action before being re-assigned to minor league camp to a lightning-quick promotion to Double-A after a month of tormenting Single-A pitchers to Monday’s news that he would be the Yankees’ representative in the All-Star Futures Game at Truist Park in Atlanta on July 12.
The latter is the least surprising on the list. Lombard has been the organization’s top-rated prospect almost from the time he suited up professionally in rookie ball at the age of 18 in 2023, shortly after the Yankees made him their first-round pick (26th overall).
“No. 1 prospect in their system,” said one AL scout assigned to the Yankees’ system. “For me, it’s not really close.”
Lombard, who turned 20 on June 2, started this season with High-A Hudson Valley but earned a promotion to Double-A Somerset May 6 after hitting .329 with a .983 OPS in 24 games.
Lombard, whom one AL scout last month compared to “a young Carlos Correa,” hasn’t yet experienced that same success with Somerset. As of Monday, he was hitting .209 with a .660 OPS in Double-A.
Such an adjustment period for prospects is not unusual, however. The jump from Single-A to Double-A is generally considered the hardest one for players to make during their development. Regardless, multiple scouts who have watched Somerset recently said to ignore Lombard’s numbers.
“You would never know he is hitting [.209],” said a second AL scout who also is assigned to the Yankees’ minor league system. “He hit four, five balls on the nose right at people, smoked line drives. He’s going to be fine.”
As an NL talent evaluator who has scouted the Yankees’ system for well over a decade put it: “Struggling in Double-A means nothing.”
The second AL scout referenced the speed with which Lombard made it to Double-A.
“Jeter had nearly 2,000 minor league at-bats [before reaching the majors], Judge had 2,000 plus,” the evaluator continued. “This is only his second full season, he has less than 900 ABs. He’ll find it.”
Lombard, drafted as a shortstop, has played the vast majority of his minor league games at short (142 starts), but the Yankees have given him a taste at second (26 starts) and third (15).
“You keep him there until shows he can’t do it,” the NL scout said of Lombard at short. “When you have a guy who’s that athletic and shows the tools he has, you leave him at the premium position. If it doesn’t work there, then you have a potential Gold Glove third baseman.”
The Yankees have a ways to go before having to make any determinations regarding Lombard long-term, though it’s difficult to find anyone — either inside the organization or outside it — who don’t believe he’ll be in the majors sooner rather than later.
“I’m confident he’ll be the big leagues next year,” another NL scout said in May, shortly after Lombard was promoted to Double-A.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who like his players were impressed by Lombard’s game and overall maturity during the spring, still practically glows when talking about the prospect.
“Super excited about George,” Boone said before his team opened a four-game series against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. “Two-way player. Outstanding defender, runs well, the bat keeps coming, keeps getting better and better. I think he’s going to be a really good big-leaguer, and as good a makeup as you can have…I can’t say enough good things about George Lombard Jr. So excited for his future.”
Notes & quotes: Austin Wells did not catch Sunday and was not in the lineup Monday night because of “a circulation issue” in his left index finger, Boone said. “It was enough of a concern that we wanted to put him through a lot of testing, just to make sure to rule out blood clot, aneurysm stuff,” Boone continued. “Just to rule out everything, check all the boxes.” Boone did not anticipate Wells playing Tuesday either but thought Wednesday could be a possibility . . . Fernando Cruz, who missed time in May with right shoulder inflammation, was put on the IL Monday with a left oblique strain. Righty Geoff Hartlieb, who mostly threw well in the spring as a non-roster invitee, took his place on the roster.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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