Way back in early March, just weeks into New York Yankees spring training, Aaron Judge knew that shortstop George Lombard Jr. was destined for stardom. Sure, Lombard Jr. — the team’s first-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft — was still just 19. And sure, he’d struggled mightily in his first full season of pro ball, posting a .672 OPS and 114 strikeouts in 110 games across two levels of A-ball.

But while that 2024 campaign had taken some of the shine off of Lombard Jr.’s top prospect status, Judge wasn’t worried. He knew better than anyone what it took for a young player to translate their physical gifts into big-league production, and he’d seen enough to know that his young teammate had it.

“The tools are all there,” Judge told reporters during Yankees camp. “I saw him take ground balls … he was smooth and athletic at third base.He doesn’t say much. He shows up and does what he needs to do. And the power he’s already showing, he’s gonna be something special.”

Judge has caught some flack in recent years for his perceived shortcomings as an evaluator of talent. But so far, Lombard Jr. has done nothing but prove the captain right — and the way his season is going, he could be sharing a clubhouse with Judge sooner rather than later.

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Aaron Judge anticipated George Lombard Jr.’s early-season breakout

Hours after New York’s loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that Lombard Jr. had been promoted to Double-A. Still a month shy of his 20th birthday, he immediately becomes the youngest player in the Eastern League, and one of the fastest risers in the entire Minors.

It’s hard to say he hasn’t earned that title. Lombard Jr. got off to a bit of a slow start, but he’s been tearing the cover off the ball of late, slashing .371/.530/.548 with one homer, eight doubles and nine steals over his last 18 games. Just as importantly, he’s only struck out 14 times over that span, a 16.8% K rate that’s a marked improvement on what was thought to be the biggest weakness in his game.

We’ve always known that Lombard Jr. was an excellent athlete, and a tremendous defender up the middle. But if he’s making this much contact, and doing so without a decline in his quality of contact, then suddenly he starts to look like a whole different kind of prospect — less a solid regular and more a star. There’s still a way to go to translate those gains at the Major League level, of course, but it’s a huge development for a team very much in need of one right now.

Not that Judge is surprised. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that he was a former first-round pick with loud tools but holes that needed to be fixed. No one’s expecting Lombard Jr. to become an inner-circle Hall of Famer, but clearly No. 99 saw something in the youngster that left him feeling very confident.