NEW YORK — Early some mornings in spring training, New York Yankees hitting coach James Rowson would stand behind the batting cage at George M. Steinbrenner Field and survey his surroundings. Often, top shortstop prospect George Lombard Jr. would be sidled up next to Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton or Cody Bellinger, picking their brains.
The subject? Usually, it was hitting.
“His reputation is so much about being a sponge,” Rowson told The Athletic. “Meaning, everyone who has ever been around him, everyone who has ever coached him — everyone talks about his desire to keep getting better, his desire to keep learning.”
The strides Lombard made offensively this season were in part a product of those brainstorming sessions with the veterans and coaches, and they were a big reason the Yankees made him their everyday shortstop after the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
But the offensive aptitude he’s shown so far in the majors — including Sunday’s two-hit performance in an 8-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays — might be what keeps him from suffering the same fate as Anthony Volpe.
“It’s been excellent,” manager Aaron Boone said of Lombard’s presence at the plate.
“He’s doing well,” Bellinger said. “He’s taking his knocks.”
“He’s grown a lot as a hitter,” manager Aaron Boone said of George Lombard Jr. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
Through his first 17 big-league games, Lombard is hitting .288 with a .348 on-base percentage and a .755 OPS. He also has two home runs and five RBIs. He has a 115 wRC+, meaning he’s produced 15 percent better than the average major-league hitter.
Lombard’s stellar defensive skills — which include a strong arm and side-to-side explosiveness — have generated most of his highlights that have gone viral on social media. (Though he’s actually made an error in each of his last three games.)
But Volpe won the 2023 American League Gold Glove Award and was hardly a defensive slouch. His biggest issue might have been he never lived up to his reputation in the minor leagues as a bat-first prospect, often showing promise but hitting just .224 with an 85 wRC+ over 528 games as the Yankees’ shortstop.
Eventually, the Yankees lost patience with Volpe, seeing Lombard as the better option and promoting him Aug. 4. Volpe, 25, has since been at Triple A, where he’s played 12 of 15 games at second base.
Lombard, 21, has made the Yankees’ decision look good. On Sunday, the 2023 first-round pick poked a ground-ball single through the right side for a hit in the second inning and then scored on Spencer Jones’ double in the next at-bat. Then, to lead off the sixth, Lombard hit a dribbler to third base for an infield single and later scored on Trent Grisham’s bases-loaded walk.
Lombard also hit a 104.7 mph lineout to shortstop in the seventh inning.
“He’s grown a lot as a hitter,” Boone said. “He knows the strike zone. That’s always been something that he’s done a good job with and should continue that. He’s strong and has some power.”
That growth was apparent earlier this season in the minor leagues. Lombard crushed the competition at Double A, hitting .312 with a .971 OPS in 20 games. But he struggled upon getting promoted to Triple A with just a .196 average in 28 games at the level going into June.
But then he took off again, hitting .352 with a 1.117 OPS over his last 30 games (including two at the Florida Complex League during a rehab assignment) before getting called to the majors.
“I think the hit-ability piece is getting better,” Boone said. “We’ve seen him in a number of situations, kind of just punch one to the right side, where the situation kind of calls for it, too. But he’s done a really good job. He’s had competitive at-bats day in and day out, whether you get a knock or two or you don’t. He’s represented himself really well.”
When Lombard got called up, he said he had one goal at the plate.
“Having competitive at-bats,” he said at the time. “I’m not going to get a hit every at-bat. I’m trying to compete and I’m trying to battle you or wear you down.”
Of course, Lombard hasn’t been in the majors for long, and there’s reason to wonder whether he’s benefitted from some good luck. Entering Sunday, he had just a .299 expected weighted on-base percentage, he had been swinging-and-missing a lot (30.4 percent) and had a relatively low hard-hit percentage (33.3 percent).
The Yankees don’t seem worried, though.
“Your first year,” Bellinger said, “you’re going to have success, and then they’re going to figure you out. It’s going to be a cat-and-mouse game. I think he’s ready for it.”
Lombard’s curiosity is a “great trait that he has,” Rowson said.
“He’s so talented that, once he gets that information, he’s able to put it into play,” the hitting coach said. “Obviously, sky’s the limit on that, but he’s definitely a coachable player and a guy who is going to learn quickly.”
Bellinger laughed while talking about Lombard after Sunday’s win. He remembered when Lombard was 13 years old and taking groundballs at shortstop next to Corey Seager before games at Dodger Stadium, back when Bellinger played for the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the time, Lombard’s father, George Sr., was a Dodgers coach. Lombard brought it up to the 31-year-old Bellinger early Sunday morning when they were in the lineup together for the first time in the majors.
“To be teammates with him is pretty wild, man,” said Bellinger, who returned Sunday after a month on the injured list with a left hamstring strain. “It is. He’s such a good baseball player, and he was even impressive at his young age. He’s got the mentality. He wants to be great. He’s doing a tremendous job. The game comes to him very slowly, very smoothly. He knows where to be on the field. He knows where to throw the ball.”
But can Lombard keep doing it offensively? If he does, the Yankees might have finally found their shortstop of the future.
