There were four names at the start of spring training who were believed to be in the running for the New York Yankees starting third baseman job: D.J. LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza, and Jorbit Vivas.
Nobody was talking about this 19-year-old by the name of George Lombard Jr. The Yankees drafted Lombard with the No. 26 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, and he’s taken the team by storm during spring training.
In eight games played, he’s batting .333 with two home runs, a 1.145 OPS, four RBI, 11 total bases, and four runs scored. In Tuesday’s 12-3 win against the Philadelphia Phillies, he went 2-for-4 with an RBI single and a run scored.
The Miami, FL native only slashed .238/.351/.336 in his two years of minor-league ball, but he’s dominated this spring. There is a 0% chance that he’ll make the Yankees’ Opening Day roster, considering he’s never played higher than High-A, but he’s showing more promising signs than their current options at the position.
In 2024, he spent 81 games in Single-A Tampa, where he slashed .232/.344/.348 and hit five home runs, knocked in 37 runs, doubled 17 times, swiped 30 bags, and walked 47 times.
He then spent 29 games in High-A Hudson Valley and hit .226/.321/.296 with 34 total bases, eight RBI, and nine stolen bases.
Even though Lombard is only 19, he’s catching the eyes of the captain.
“I was really impressed,” Aaron Judge said. “Seeing him move over to third base, he’s got a great arm. He was accurate. He was hitting every single guy in the chest. Smooth hands; Anthony Volpe is one of the best shortstops I’ve ever seen, and you put [Lombard] right next to him at third base; it’s pretty cool to see that on the left side of the infield.”
Lombard was drafted as a shortstop, so a naturally smooth fielder can make the transition to the hot corner. Great shortstops have made even better third basemen throughout history, like Alex Rodriguez and Manny Machado.
Due to his age and the service time rule, he might end up being a mid-season or postseason call-up if he dominates the minors this year and the Yankees are in desperate need of a spark. Teams tend to wait to call their top prospects up so that they can keep them under team control for a longer period of time.
Service time is registered as time spent in the Majors or on the Injured List. In order to register as one year of service time, a player must be in the MLB or on the IL for 15 days. Teams wait an extra day so that they guarantee that their sixth year of service time won’t accrue until the start of their seventh season – it’s a way to manipulate the system.
If Lombard is the real deal, New York will want to maximize his years of team control – who wouldn’t? In doing so, Lombard might not make it to the Show for a couple of years, even if he’s ready. Of course, injuries to big league starters and depth pieces might lead to him coming up sooner, but it’s likely he won’t make a big league roster for a couple of years.
