{"id":769473,"date":"2026-08-04T04:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T04:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/769473\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T04:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T04:51:14","slug":"yankees-promote-george-lombard-jr-demote-anthony-volpe-jasson-dominguez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/769473\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees promote George Lombard Jr., demote Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dom\u00ednguez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresh off a Trade Deadline that saw the Yankees fail to add a catcher or increase their bullpen depth, fans at Yankee Stadium were rewarded with a 13-7 loss<\/a> that was somehow even more painful than the final score indicates. The Cardinals crushed young ace Cam Schlittler and ran up a 6-0 lead. The blowout was on, until a furious barrage of Yankees homers was capped by a two-run shot from trade addition Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. to make it 7-6. One disastrous seven-run (!) eighth later, and, well there\u2019s your final score.<\/p>\n

In short, the outlook wasn\u2019t brilliant (to invoke \u201cCasey at the Bat\u201d) on Yankees news as the clock approached midnight on the East Coast. Then came a bolt of lightning from YES Network\u2019s Jack Curry, bringing the news that a 21-year-old long discussed in fan circles would be debuting the next day: George Lombard Jr.<\/p>\n

Does this make me feel better about the Yankees after a Monday like this one? I\u2019d like to say that it does, but it only does so much. This loss really stunk and unless Lombard has secret two-way talents that he\u2019s not disclosing, he\u2019s not helping the bullpen. (Austin Wells at least had a nice game behind the plate, so that frustration was mildly assuaged.)<\/p>\n

That being said, this is still the right move. This is the time for Lombard.<\/p>\n

The Yankees\u2019 top pick in the 2023 MLB Draft has zoomed through the system, getting the bump from Double-A Somerset to Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre back at the end of this past April. Across 78 games in the minors in 2026, he\u2019s hit .284\/.411\/.498 with 24 doubles, 12 homers, 13 stolen bases, and a 157 wRC+. Now those figures are different when only looking at Triple-A (.268\/.405\/.440, 126 wRC+), but Lombard really started raking once he got his feet wet in May. From the beginning of June onward, he\u2019s hit a staggering .352\/.470\/.648 with a 183 wRC+ in 30 games. Although he missed time with a sprained finger, he did not take any breathers upon returning just after the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

Lombard is also extremely deft at shortstop, and it wasn\u2019t long after he was drafted that folks started calling him the best defensive shortstop in the system regardless of level. In a midseason update<\/a>, Baseball Prospectus ranked Lombard as the 24th-best prospect in baseball. His glove has been big-league ready for some time; it\u2019s just been a matter of the bat catching up. Now, it\u2019s here.<\/p>\n

As demonstrated by Lombard\u2019s bumpy adjustment to the International League back in May, fans should not assume that he\u2019s going to hit nearly as well in The Show as he did at Triple-A. The chasm of talent between Triple-A pitching and Major League Baseball has never been higher, and he\u2019s had an understandable pattern of needing to figure things out. Patience is not a virtue that Yankees fans are known for, but they\u2019re going to need to demonstrate some of that with Lombard. Honestly, as long as Lombard plays well on defense and adds a little righty boost to the lineup against southpaws, then the Yankees will be thrilled.<\/p>\n

Now, what does mean for incumbent shortstops Jos\u00e9 Caballero and Anthony Volpe? Well for the former, he was a nice story when he was hot at the outset of 2026, but his position has always been utilityman extraordinaire. And when he\u2019s not finding his way into the starting nine, he\u2019s a former stolen base leader who is an easy pinch-running threat. Caballero might eke his way into the lineup here and there regardless due to the Yankees\u2019 current injuries, but there will be less of a reliance on him.<\/p>\n

As for Volpe, the ship has sailed. He was in Lombard\u2019s shoes once, at the start of the 2023 season when he was named Opening Day shortstop and won the job in spring training from another highly-regarded shortstop prospect, Oswald Peraza. Now, Volpe is being demoted to Triple-A for the second time this year (following a decent rookie year and two follow-ups that left a lot to be desired). His first demotion was because the surging Caballero displaced Volpe as starting shortstop while he worked his way back from injury. There was no room at the inn.<\/p>\n

Once Caballero himself went on the IL, Volpe had another shot. He\u2019s hit .240\/.325\/.322 with only one homer and an 87 wRC+, barely above his career-average 85 wRC+. The story is the same; it\u2019s just a slightly different flavor every year with Volpe. Caballero was once again getting more reps at the six in July, and the writing was on the wall. Now that Lombard\u2019s up, Volpe is going down.<\/p>\n

Volpe will be be joined by Jasson Dom\u00ednguez, who has had chances to nail down a starting spot of his own due to injuries to Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Cody Bellinger. He\u2019s hit worse than Volpe: .230\/.270\/.380 with an 81 wRC+, and he has no idea how to play the outfield. The Yankees just traded for the Giants\u2019 Heliot Ramos<\/a> and Spencer Jones at least knows what he\u2019s doing out there, so Dom\u00ednguez is back to being a RailRider. (Angel Chivilli was walloped in relief on Monday despite a nice run recently and the Yankees need a fresh arm, so out he goes.)<\/p>\n

Back to the focus of Lombard, Volpe and Peraza are the warning flags here. There\u2019s a very real chance that fans are never going to love Lombard as much as they do in this very moment. The onus will be on Lombard to be his own person and ultimately fare better than Volpe and Peraza, who never adequately corrected the serious flaws in their approaches at the plate.<\/p>\n

I do honestly feel pretty good about Lombard. And just because past recent stories of the six have disappointed, that obviously doesn\u2019t mean you never try again. He can break the pattern. Even in the current flawed Yankees lineup, he doesn\u2019t need to be the star as a rookie. New York is simply looking for a solid defender who can get his share of hits here and there. If he can do that as a 21-year-old\u2014he was born in June 2005, barely a month after Robinson Can\u00f3\u2018s MLB debut if you want a jump-scare\u2014then that\u2019s as good a way as any to begin!<\/p>\n

Go get \u2019em, George. Welcome to The Show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh off a Trade Deadline that saw the Yankees fail to add a catcher or increase their bullpen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,4,1690,62,2548,2547,142,4675,3881],"class_list":["post-769473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-yankees","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkyankees","tag-yankees","tag-yankees-roster","tag-yankees-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117035446010812038","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769473","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=769473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}