Yankees' Lombard Jr. makes 'legendary' MLB debut
James Schiano praises George Lombard Jr.'s performance in major league debut for the New York Yankees and analyzes his fantasy outlook for the final stretch of the regular season.
Video Transcript
George Lombard Jr. Just had a legendary Major League debut.
The Yankees top prospect was promoted late Monday night to reinvigorate their lineup and smoked a home run in just his second big league at-bat for his first big league hit.
That's begun a frenzy where Lombard, whether right or wrong, has been anointed as the next big thing and a possible savior for this Yankees team that's been treading water lately without any production whatsoever from the shortstop position.
Their first-round pick in 2023 and son of a former big leaguer, Lombard has spent the last few seasons as a bona fide top 100 prospect and peaked as a top 20 guy in MLB Pipeline's recent midseason re-rank.
Known for his smooth defense at short and fantastic arm, he could grow into a premier defender at that position for years to come.
But his bat has developed a bit more slowly.
He took big strides at AAA this season though, with an 845 OPS across 56 games, plus a higher walk rate and lower strikeout rate than he had the season before at a lower level.
Advanced data backs up this improvement too, with rising batted ball quality, including a 111 mile per hour max exit velocity, 104.5 mile per hour 90th percentile exit velocity, and 49% hard hit rate, which all came as he was still just 21 years old, recently turned 21 years old, while finding a knack to pull fly balls and staying patient at the plate.
There was still plenty of swing and miss in his game though, and if there was a fear with his offensive profile, it's that the power is more good than great, and not enough to possibly alleviate the swing and miss concerns at the next level.
Again, he only turned 21 a few months ago, so there's plenty of time for him to improve as a hitter, and his stellar defense will anchor him as a productive player for years to come.
Just don't consider him a must-add player in 12-team leagues yet.
