Considering his status as a top-five prospect in the New York Yankees’ farm system, arguably the franchise with the largest number of eyes upon them, 2023 first-rounder George Lombard Jr. gets chronically overlooked.
Perhaps it’s because the farm is viewed as more underwhelming now than it’s been in a decade, given so many high-profile 2024 regressions. Maybe it was his less-than-bombastic offensive full season debut, in which he finished with a .672 OPS as a 19-year-old. “There were more encouraging numbers below the hood, thought!” you yell to a bunch of people who have no intention of checking below the hood.
Either way, Lombard Jr. slipped by mostly undetected — except by the Astros in the Kyle Tucker trade rumors that lit up the post-Winter Meetings portion of the offseason.
Hopefully, MLB Pipeline’s latest group of honors serves to give him a little more shine heading towards a season where he hopes to reestablish his footing and join the top 100, in much the same way his free-swinging Yankees counterpart Roderick Arias does.
Pipeline revealed the results of a front office poll this week, and executives agreed that the eternally smooth Lombard Jr. is the fourth-best defensive prospect in the game, at the moment. Obviously, early defensive accolades go a long way for a shortstop, whether that’s where Lombard Jr. ultimately lands or not.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to earn a plurality of the vote. That went to premier Rays prospect Carson Williams, who received an overwhelming 45.8% of the vote.
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) January 7, 2025
Yankees prospect George Lombard Jr. receives praise for defense, gets dominated by Carson Williams of the Rays
Imagine earning nearly half of the votes in a completely unlimited sample? Just … off the top of their head, 46% of the game’s executives named Williams when prompted? Got to feel good.
Williams, a 2021 Rays first-rounder out of Torrey Pines High School in San Diego (must be nice), dominated Double-A in 2024, adding 20 homers and an .821 OPS to his career resume. Lombard Jr. has a long way to go before he’s mentioned alongside the budding Rays superstar in any other context (of course they have another shortstop).
Still, while Lombard Jr. won’t take away any flowers for earning the top spot here, he can take solace in the fact that his slickness is being noticed. Something to build on as he approaches a season that could propel him. Clearly, he’s on the tip of the tongue of plenty of GMs.
