The young infielder even showed off his potential in the field<\/a> with a few dazzling plays<\/a> on defense. While Lombard had some standout moments<\/a> in spring training, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said<\/a> in February that the top prospect “could play defense in the big leagues right now, but he’s still developing on the hitting side.” Even though it was just one game, Lombard’s performance at the plate on Friday was certainly a great way to begin the season. <\/p>\n How will George Lombard Jr. build on first-game success? Mar 10, 2025; Tampa, Florida, USA; New York Yankees shortstop George Lombard Jr. (96) throws to first to make the double play as Detroit Tigers outfielder Kerry Carpenter (30) slides into second during the first inning at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Dave Nelson-Imagn Images | Dave Nelson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n While there’s undoubtedly a ton of hype around the Yankees’ top prospect, Lombard still has some work to do this year, as Cashman pointed out earlier this spring. Last year, the young infielder posted a .215 batting average in 108 Double-A games, while also striking out 124 times. New York would presumably like to see the 20-year-old improve in both of those areas in 2026. <\/p>\n The 2023 first-round draft pick is still young, though. If it were up to some Yankees fans, he’d probably already be in the big leagues. But as things stand, Lombard should have time to continue his development at Double-A, with a possible promotion to Triple-A in the cards at some point this year. If his first game of the season is any indication of what’s to come, however, the young shortstop could be ready to have his breakout season at the plate. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Somerset Patriots, the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, played their first game of the season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,4,1690,62,2548,2547,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-662410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-yankees","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkyankees","14":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116345281529314266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01knb4dkdb2y5a481kg6.jpg\" "\\"New")
<\/p>\n