MISSED OPPORTUNITIES!!! (Part 1 of 2)

by Paul Semendinger

August 30, 2026

***

I have been writing a lot about the Yankees and the way they handle their prospects and the way they are currently handling George Lombard, Jr.

• Here I discuss players with fast starts to their careers and more.

• Here I discuss the pressures of being a 21-year-old big leaguer on the Yankees

• Here I discuss the continued failed prospects just over the last few years

One big point I am trying to drive home is that decision makers that cause these young would-be stars to fail simply move on from Prospect A to Prospect B to Prospect C to Prospect D while the careers and the lives of those failed players are short-changed or ruined.

As the fans jump from one former shiny object to the newest one, most never consider the impact on the player himself, once a fan favorite, and now a player all are only too happy to see cast aside.

But, what about that player - the person?

This is a problem here that no one ever seems to discuss.

***

I see the way the Yankees handle their prospects time and again as a big problem.

The Yankees rush kids who aren't ready for the big time, highlight and promote them as if they are already stars, and put them in positions and situations they are not prepared for. The Yankees put so many barriers in the player's path to success that they basically set him up for failure. They do this again and again.

And then when the player ultimately fails, they simply move on to the next kid and start the same process once again.

***

Take a moment to look up some of the failed prospects and note where their careers have taken them as they move from one franchise to the next, across one minor league town to the next, some even to other countries, to try to get their careers back on track. Some stick around as part-time players. Some fade away. None become the stars the Yankees and/or the writers and ranking systems promised they'd be.

These players have had their lives upended.

Yet, when their own contracts are up, the men who made the decisions that hampered the careers of the future stars get more years of employment and nice raises.

Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone have job security and millions of dollars while the players they cast away work to try to piece together a struggling career that didn't have to be that way.

***

What is never noted for those failed prospects is what they lost. Everyone focuses on the new kid, the bright young star-to-be. The fans fall in love immediately with the new guy, just as they had previously fell in love with the player that was just discarded.

But those discarded players' lives are upended. They lost millions of dollars in salary all because of the way their careers played out - again at least in part due to the way they were trained, built, grown, and handled by the New York Yankees.

These are players who dedicated their lives to a craft and trusted the Yankees system to help them realize their potential. And it did not.

This is a huge issue no one ever talks about. Ever. Ever. Ever and Ever.

***

Just about a year ago, there was discussion about giving Anthony Volpe a long-term contract to have him remain the Yankees shortstop for the next long while. People were talking about a ten-year deal to secure his place on the Yankees. A contract like that would have been worth more than one hundred of million dollars, maybe a lot more. That will never happen now for Volpe.

Gary Sanchez, still just 33-years-old, is playing year-to-year. He's making a whopping $1.5 million this year. Jacob DeGrom, the player some wouldn't have traded Sanchez for in 2018 is making $38 million this year alone and he has two more years totaling $74 million to come. If things had played out differently, Sanchez could have been in that same financial class.

To be fair, some of the blame for Gary Sanchez's failures fall entirely on him. Of course, and absolutely. Sanchez himself played a part.

But some of the blame for his failure, some of that missed opportunity, falls on the Yankees. One has to wonder, seriously, how Sanchez's career would have played out if his manager had remained Joe Girardi rather than Aaron Boone. How much did that managerial change hurt and cost Gary Sanchez? (I believe a lot.)

These are the issues no one, ever, discusses.

It is past time when those concerns are also addressed.

And it's not just Gary Sanchez and Anthony Volpe. The list is long.

When the Yankees discard the player and move on and hype the next guy, what so many are missing isn't just that a new prospect has arrived it's that the last guy, who was the darling of all, just minutes before, is cast aside and quickly discarded. No one takes the time to consider what that person's career and life has become.

If a player failed because he didn't work hard, or didn't have a professional approach, or got caught up in the temptations of being a big leaguer, or for any other similar reason, that's on the player.

But when the player failed because the team did not coach him well, rushed him to the Major Leagues, put him in positions he was not ready for, forced him to play while he was injured, and more, that failure is on the team.

When Anthony Volpe came up, it seemed clear that the Yankees were rushing him and that he shouldn't even be in the big leagues yet. Since he was in the bigs, I argued that he should bat ninth. After all, he had played only 22 games at Triple-A and batted only .236 there. That was after he batted only .251 at Double-A (in 110 games). It was clear, it was obvious on its face, that the kid was not ready for big league pitching.

And yet, in Volpe's 11th Major League game, the Yankees batted him clean-up. Clean-up! The kid was never supposed to be a power hitter and here he was batting clean-up for the New York Yankees, the place Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, and Jackson batted.

Then in his 12th game, he was batting leadoff. What messages were the Yankees sending the kid?

He was soon moved all over the lineup after soon failing as a leadoff hitter. This was the exact wrong way to acclimate a kid to the Major Leagues. The fact that he batted .209 that first season wasn't a surprise. The fact that he never became even a league average hitter is no surprise. At all. He didn't hit in the minors - and he was denied the chance to develop that skill in the minor leagues. What made anyone logically think he would suddenly learn to hit in the Major Leagues?

It was obvious on its face that Anthony Volpe was not a Major League hitter when he came up. That point simply became more and more apparent - all as the Yankees kept saying he was "elite" and kept him in positions where it was clear he would fail.

And fail he did.

Who deserves the blame for Volpe's failure? By all accounts, Volpe was a hard and diligent worker. He did what his skills and his experience allowed him to do.

How would his career have played out differently if he were permitted even one full season at Triple-A? How would his career have played out if he wasn't expected to bat all over the lineup in the big leagues? Those are aspects of his career he had no control over. Anthony Volpe just did as he was told.

In a very large sense, the Yankees failed Volpe by rushing him and then never having a plan to help assure his big league success. (The lack of a plan is proven conclusively by the fact that they didn't even know where to bat the kid in the lineup.)

It is in this light when I write that I am frustrated with the way the Yankees are now handling George Lombard, Jr.

It is a whole lot more than "Well, they need a shortstop," and "The Yankees need a right-handed hitter batting fifth right now" (which are the arguments so many are making). It is, rather - If they hamper this kid's career, as they have done for so many, it has a much greater impact than anyone ever takes the time to discuss.

There is the impact on kid who once had such great potential...

Lombard was rushed. Of that there is no doubt. He played a total of only 56 games at Triple-A and only 128 games at Double-A. He's only 21. He batted just .268 at Triple-A and .231 at Double-A. And yet, in his eighth game, the Yankees had this kid batting in the number five position in the batting order.

In what sane world, seriously, does that make any sense? The truth is it simply does not. At all. It is impossible to argue that it does.

If Lombard fails, and we all hope he does not, the Yankees will simply trot out a new prospect. The fans will then consider Lombard an albatross and they will be glad to see him go. They'll all tout the new young kid and praise the Yankees and talk about all the flaws in Lombard's game - just as they have done with all the other failed prospects.

And when someone urges caution with the next kid, and says, "Maybe the new kid is not ready," there are those who will laugh, just as they did when caution was urged with Volpe, and just as they laugh when the same concerns are raised regarding Lombard, Jr.

But, I am sure Gary Sanchez and Anthony Volpe (and so many others) are not laughing. I think they are wondering not only about what could have been, but what should have been - if they had only been handled differently.

These are the missed opportunities for the players and their lives. This is what no one talks about. But it's real.

And it's a problem.

***

In Part 2 tomorrow, I will move from the individual player aspect of this discussion to the impact on the team which is also a gigantic point that, again, no one, ever discusses.

That next point is one that has hurt the Yankees in profound ways and has negatively impacted their opportunities for winning World Championships (yes, plural, championships).

***

To all in the media (bloggers, sportscasters, announcers, writers, columnists, podcasters, and the rest) - Thank you for visiting Start Spreading The News. We appreciate that you come here for great Yankees coverage and original (and excellent) writing. If you are going to use or borrow our content, please give credit to the writer and the site. It is only right to do so. Thank you.