Rushing George Lombard Would Not Be Prudent

By Sal Maiorana

March 2026

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Sal Maiorana shares his thoughts on the Yankees. Here is an edited version of Sal's latest article.

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I’m seeing a lot of buzz about George Lombard Jr., the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect, being in line to make the team out of spring training and start at shortstop while Anthony Volpe spends at least the first month on the sidelines getting his shoulder ready for game action.

Can we please tap the brakes here? The last thing the Yankees should be doing is making the same mistake they did with Volpe in 2023, rushing him to the big leagues when he probably could have used a little more seasoning at Triple-A.

The 20-year-old Lombard has had a nice couple weeks down in Florida, grabbing playing time and at bats with Volpe out, Oswaldo Cabrera just now getting into games for the first since his broken ankle last May, and Jose Caballaro playing for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic.

The slick fielding 2023 No. 1 draft pick seems to make a dazzling play with his glove every day, and across 27 plate appearances (through Sunday), he has a .407 on-base and a .931 OPS thanks to a double, triple, and home run among his five hits. Let’s also remember, though, that while his home run came off Red Sox Garrett Crochet, the majority of pitchers he has faced are probably headed back to the minor leagues.

Lombard is not ready to be the full-time shortstop for the Yankees, there’s no reason to speed up the timetable, and I think the Yankees know this. He doesn’t have a single at-bat at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre, and when he was promoted to Double-A Somerset last year and played 108 games, he struggled at the plate, slashing .215/.337/.358 with a .695 OPS and struck out 26.4% of the time which is disappointing for a player with his talent at that level.

“I think it was very beneficial getting through that for the first time and knowing different ways to manage that and different ways to deal with that,” Lombard told reporters about the difficulty he had moving from Single-A to Double-A. “I think I learned a lot about myself for sure, and there were a lot of things that I will take away from that struggle and from that period of time where things weren’t going my way that I’ll be able to kind of use that knowledge or use that information in the future later when it will happen.”

I can easily see a world where Lombard becomes the Yankees’ full-time shortstop in 2027, unless Volpe suddenly becomes far more reliable as a hitter when he gets back to action. If that happens and they don’t move on from Volpe, maybe he moves to second base next season, or even third, with Lombard taking over at short. Jazz Chisholm is a free agent after 2026 and may not be re-signed, and Ryan McMahon is a free agent after 2027.

“He’s been great,” Aaron Boone told reporters last week when asked about Lombard. “You see what he’s capable of. The thing he does pretty well already, as a young hitter, is control the strike zone and has real pop. He’s swung the bat really well, but also played his normal phenomenal defense wherever he’s at. He has an exciting future, with that versatility and defense, not just at shortstop. But he can really play shortstop.”