George Lombard Jr. is Trending Toward Promotion

By EJ Fagan

June 17, 2026

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The following post comes from EJ Fagan's Substack, Baseball Is Life. It is shared with permission.

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A few weeks ago, Keith Law rated George Lombard Jr. as the #6 prospect in the minors. Other outlets had him rated highly before the season, but not this high (#32 MLB.com, #46 Baseball America).

Law wrote:

For the second year in a row, Lombard got off to a hot start and the Yankees promoted him inside of a month, so he’s now in Triple A, only hitting .198/.358/.233 but drawing walks (obviously) and at least keeping the strikeouts in check. He’s had some bad luck already, hitting the ball much harder than the statline indicates, but he’s been somewhat passive as he was after his promotion to Double A early last year. He’s a gifted shortstop and a 55 to 60 runner who has enough power to get to 15-20 homers in time. Given his history of adjusting to new levels over long periods of time, I’m not worried about the slow start.

Law is the best in the business in my book. Because he covers the full league, he doesn’t tend to buy into a lot of Yankees hype. He is also prone to making much more aggressive decisions than a BA or BP, who tend to report using the general consensus among teams more than their pure opinions. Also, Law is just a super smart dude who usually doesn’t move guys to #6 who are hitting .198.

Let’s start with some Lombard stats. He started the season hitting .312/.400/.571 at Double-A, with a 21% strikeout rate, 13% walk rate and four home runs as the youngest hitter at the level. Given how much he struggled to post stats in 2025 (also as the youngest hitter), it looked like a real breakout. He earned a promotion to Triple-A in just a few weeks.

Wow. Lombard’s batting numbers would be impressive for a 23 year old right fielder, let alone (again) the youngest hitter in the International League who also plays up the middle. Prospect Savant summarizes this with their PS Score, which is effectively an index of his batting numbers weighted by age. Lombard is #3 in all of Triple-A (Dominguez is #18, Spencer Jones is in the 30s).

Lombard does a lot of good things at the plate. He’s always been very god at drawing walks, although its always questionable how well that skill will translate to the majors. He hits the ball hard, especially for a middle infielde.r While he has a lot of swing and miss, he’s maintained his respectable 21% strikeout rate at the higher level and doesn’t tend to miss outside the zone. It’s all added up to a .226/.374/.374 batting line so far - not bad not great but probably suffering from a bit of bad luck.

But the story gets even more intriguing when you look at his performance over time. Lombard had an adjustment period, as you would expect for a guy who turned 21 two weeks ago. Lombard is hitting .292/.407/.542—basically his Double-A batting line—in June, and .253/.369/.495 over his last month. Really good stuff.

And then there’s the defense. Basically every single third party prospect person agrees that Lombard is already a plus defensive shortstop. Not good. Not acceptable. Plus. That plays even if the hitting isn’t any good (see: Volpe, Anthony, who you might be surprised is playing at a 2.5 WAR pace).

So the trends are all great. The Yankees would probably call up Lombard Jr. in an emergency, but likely prefer to give him more development time at Triple-A. But there’s a pretty good chance that by mid-August, he’s been posting a .900 OPS in Triple-A for months and becomes the Yankees starting shortstop.

That could all work out fantastic. Lombard Jr. could solve a short term problem for them, or at least allow them to trade Anthony Volpe at the deadline. And really anyone who is a really good shortstop and hits a bit is basically an instant all star. Francisco Lindor is heading for the Hall of Fame with a career .815 OPS.

But I worry a lot about the adjustment period. Lombard Jr. is so young and inexperienced that he’s struggled after each promotion. The Double-A struggle lasted a full season, rather than the month at Double-A. But the MLB promotion is the biggest jump of them all. I don’t think that the Yankees can call him up mid-season and not expect him to hit .190 for a bit. That’s hard in the middle of a tough division race when you could just play Cabarello.

So I stand by my take that the Yankees should trade for Jeremy Pena. Lombard Jr. can play third if they want to call him up now or in 2027. He’s a great long term play, but I’m concerned about his ability to improve a team barreling toward the World Series and the Dodgers rotation.