Yanks Mag: Prepping Like a Pro

On a warm Tuesday night in Northeastern Pennsylvania, change was in the air. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders and their fans had dealt with the remnants of a long, cold winter during the first six weeks of the baseball season, and finally, there was a warm breeze sweeping through the ballpark.

Following an off-day that coincided with Memorial Day, the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate returned home to PNC Field for the first of six games against the Worcester Red Sox. With fans still making their way to their seats, the WooSox grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

After the third out was made, RailRiders shortstop George Lombard Jr. darted off the field and into the home dugout on the third-base side. He grabbed a bat, took a few dry swings in the on-deck circle, then stepped to the plate to face Raymond Burgos, a tall lefty from Puerto Rico.

When Lombard’s name was announced, a good number of fans stood up and clapped. Listening to the reception, you’d never know that he was batting .198.

But fans know a budding star when they see one.

Since being selected by the Yankees with the 26th overall pick in the 2023 Draft, the infielder has climbed the organizational ladder from Rookie ball to Triple-A in three seasons. He is currently the Yankees’ top prospect according to multiple outlets, and MLB Pipeline ranks him as the No. 20 prospect in the entire sport.

Lombard battled Burgos, eventually bringing the count full. The 6-foot-2 right-handed hitter then ripped a line drive that skipped off the grass in left field and bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double.

In that at-bat, Lombard showcased the type of hitter he is quickly becoming. He was patient and unwilling to swing at any pitches outside of the strike zone. He laid off tough pitches until he ultimately got one that he could drive.

Since getting promoted to Triple-A on April 29, Lombard has consistently put together impressive at-bats while working diligently to deal with the learning curve that comes from facing stiffer competition.

“For me, the game planning has been more thorough,” Lombard said prior to the RailRiders’ May 26 game against Worcester. “Pitchers are able to attack weaknesses more. You have older guys here and guys who have Major League experience.

“But even though there are some really good players here, at the end of the day, it’s still the same game with the same field dimensions. I have just tried to execute a plan every day since I got here, the same way I did at the other levels.”

Although it is still a relatively small sample size, Lombard’s performance with the RailRiders has matched his track record at the other levels. Upon getting promoted, he struggled to pile up hits. But even though his numbers left something to be desired over his first 15 games, his manager felt as if he was still ahead of the curve.

“We can’t control results,” Shelley Duncan said as he watched Lombard take ground balls prior to batting practice. “From the time he came up here, George was hitting the ball hard and having good at-bats. But if you look at those superficial stats, just the ones on the surface like batting average, you would think that he was having a rough start. Some hard-hit balls weren’t falling in. He faced a few really good pitchers in his first two weeks with us. He also had a 20% walk rate, which means he was comfortable taking pitches and getting on base.”

Following a stretch in which Lombard tallied one hit in six games, he collected two singles against the Syracuse Mets on May 17. Two days later, he got three hits in a road game against Lehigh Valley, and from then on, he continued to make an impact. Beginning with the two-hit game against Syracuse, Lombard collected 14 hits in the last 13 games in May, including his first two Triple-A home runs.

“I just felt more comfortable during the series in Lehigh,” said Lombard, who turned 21 on June 2. “I feel like I was able to figure out a little more about how guys were going to attack me here. I was able to make sure that my game planning was on point, and when you mix that in with a few balls falling in for you here and there, that’s a good recipe.”

Although there is plenty of work for Lombard to do at Triple-A, his recent success has been encouraging -- though hardly surprising -- for Duncan and his coaching staff.

“We knew by the way he was playing that the numbers would start taking care of themselves,” the skipper said. “There hasn’t been one at-bat that he has had where I wasn’t excited. There wasn’t one at-bat where I would have wanted anyone else to be at the plate, regardless of what those numbers were showing.”

While Duncan was quick to point out Lombard’s raw ability, he has been equally impressed with the infielder’s poise and maturity since he has had him on the roster.

“The hits are starting to fall in; it was bound to happen,” Duncan said. “It’s not indicative of him doing anything different. It’s indicative of him trusting the process and staying disciplined and not letting any of the outside noise get to him. That’s the most impressive thing he does. You see so many players who might be having good at-bats but things aren’t going their way, and they think they need to do more or change. That’s not him, and I’m really proud of that.”

Lombard’s previous stop on the Minor League ladder spanned two seasons, and the improvement he made in Double-A Somerset was even more dramatic than what he has done in Scranton thus far. After getting promoted from High-A Hudson Valley to Somerset in the second month of the 2025 season, Lombard played in 108 games at the Double-A level, batting .215.

“That was actually the hardest jump so far,” Lombard said. “That’s where I felt like I was consistently seeing guys who could pitch in the Majors for the first time in my life.”

After getting through his first extended stint in Double-A and also participating in the 2025 MLB All-Star Futures Game in Atlanta, Lombard was assigned to start 2026 back in Somerset. Having benefited from nearly a full season there, he felt that he was ready to make a much bigger splash this year.

Lombard’s belief in himself was quickly validated. He started the season with a five-hit game and had racked up a .971 OPS and four home runs while batting .312 when he earned a promotion to Triple-A after just 20 games.

“I felt great since I got there,” he said. “I certainly got off to the start that I had planned to get off to in Somerset. I felt confident, my body was in a good place, and I made a few really important tweaks in the offseason.”

Although Duncan believes that Lombard would have been formidable had he began this season in Triple-A, he was thrilled with the way the prized prospect shot out of the gate in Somerset.

“When you repeat a level, there is a lot of pressure that comes subconsciously because you want to earn a promotion right away,” Duncan said. “You sometimes think that you need to do more than you did previously to get that bump. There can be unnecessary pressure that people put on themselves. But when a guy starts the way George did, it gives them a great deal of comfort, and it allows them to relax. It was good for him to start in Somerset because he performed so well right away. He came up here with a lot of confidence.”

Similar to previous years, Lombard’s winter work paved the way for a big year. For the second season in a row, his preparation included a stint in the organization’s Major League camp during Spring Training.

Before getting reassigned to Minor League camp, Lombard played in 11 exhibition games with the big club, collecting five hits -- including a home run that cleared the Green Monster at the Red Sox’s Spring Training ballpark in Fort Myers, Fla.

In addition to the valuable experience of facing Major League pitching, Lombard also relished the opportunity to be around the Yankees’ veteran players once again.

“During the first year, I was getting used to it all but still learned a ton,” Lombard said. “I was able to build good relationships with the guys, and they treated me great. This year, I felt a lot more comfortable. I learned a ton just from talking to guys who have played at every level and who, in some cases, are the greatest players in the sport.

“I talked to Giancarlo [Stanton] and Aaron [Judge] a lot. Giancarlo has provided me with a lot of wisdom, and he constantly asked me how I was doing with everything. [Anthony] Volpe has been great. He has been where I am now. He came up through this system, and he understands how it all works. He has been a great resource for me. He has always been there for me.”

Lombard’s improvements at the plate did not go unnoticed, especially by the Yankees’ captain.

“He has made some adjustments the past couple of years,” Judge said in May. “He’s using the whole field. He’s a great contact hitter, and he has some juice behind it. He’s going to continue to grow and get stronger and continue to develop that power. This spring, you were starting to see consistency at the plate, just one good at-bat after another at such a young age. I couldn’t imagine being his age in Spring Training with the New York Yankees. The composure he has, he’s built for New York.”

Lombard has also made significant strides in the field since getting drafted. The smooth-fielding infielder, whose arm strength has team brass ecstatic about the future, made just nine errors in 498 chances in 2025. While splitting time between his natural shortstop position and second and third base this spring, Lombard showed off the type of range not often seen in the Minors.

“It’s always been something that I have taken a lot of pride in,” Lombard said. “That part of my game is something that I really enjoy. A lot of the improvement in the field has come hand-in-hand with physical development. Just having more range, that comes with being able to have more acceleration and more speed. Having a better arm, that came from just working hard at improving my arm strength. But I love being at shortstop and taking as many ground balls as I can before batting practice. I think that my love for fielding has helped me get better at it. I love to work on it. It’s a big passion of mine.”

Since arriving in Scranton, Lombard has had a major impact on the team defensively, and Duncan has enjoyed watching the prospect hone his craft.

“It’s fun to watch him,” Duncan said. “He has great baseball instincts in the field. He has the type of range needed to get to balls all over the field and still have the arm strength to complete plays. As it relates to intangibles, he has the ability to throw guys out at the plate on a cutoff. He has the mindset to always throw to the right base to get the trail runner. Besides defensive fundamentals, there’s a million things we are all looking for, and he does all of them well.”

While Duncan envisions Lombard playing shortstop at the big league level, the manager has moved him around the infield this season in an effort to prepare him for any opportunity that may arise in the Bronx.

“His baseball IQ and physical ability allow him to be an impact player anywhere,” Duncan said. “I plan to give him reps at second or third, without any prediction of where his future will be, because he is going to be a shortstop in the big leagues for a long time. He can impact a Major League roster right now at shortstop, second base or even at third. You don’t know what will be needed at the Major League level to open that door for him, so I want to make sure that he’s ready. He has the ability to do it all.”

Lombard’s star is no doubt on the rise. At the present time, he is working hard to become a productive player for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. But his goals -- and presumably his future -- go way beyond that.

In addition to the rare blend of offensive and defensive skills that compelled the Yankees to draft Lombard in the first round, his background is also a major factor as to why he has risen through the ranks so quickly.

Lombard grew up around the game. His father, George Lombard Sr., currently serves as the Detroit Tigers’ bench coach and has held coaching positions at the Minor League level and in the Majors with several teams since 2010. The elder Lombard also played parts of six seasons in the Majors, beginning with the Atlanta Braves between 1998 and 2000, followed by stints with the 2002 Tigers, 2003 Devil Rays and 2006 Nationals.

For the younger Lombard -- whose mother, Judy Prado Lombard, is a longtime Spanish-language television executive in Miami and whose younger brother, Jacob, was drafted by the Marlins with the No. 14 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft -- his lifelong ties to baseball have been invaluable.

“It helped me so much, just by being around the game and being able to pick up on the little things by watching my dad,” Lombard said. “As a young kid, I was a sponge, taking in information every day. I was watching players at the highest level going about their business, and that helped me understand what it takes on a day-in, day-out basis. Being able to learn from the best players in the world was incredible. Seeing the parts of their lives that don’t get highlighted, that really helped.”

A two-sport star in baseball and soccer at Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami who is fluent in English and Spanish, Lombard leans heavily on the advice that both of his parents imparted on him during his youth, especially as he deals with the rigors of Minor League Baseball.

“When I go through ups and downs during my own seasons, my parents have been there,” he said. “My dad has dealt with all of that, and he reminds me that this game will give you gray hair. This game is going to throw curveballs at you all the time, both literally and figuratively. There are going to be times when you don’t feel confident or you don’t feel like yourself. There are times when the game won’t come easy, but he helps remind me that those experiences are part of it. My parents have helped me to bounce back from that, and to not let it affect my inner trust in myself and my routine.”

Whether it came from his upbringing or the internal makeup he was born with, Lombard’s work ethic and commitment to the process are on par with his ability, and those traits seem likely to pay dividends down the road.

“The one thing that is not always talked about with work ethic is consistency,” Duncan said. “There are a lot of people out there that work like crazy, but they are constantly changing things and doing things differently. They might be thinking they are working toward something good, but in reality, they are working backward. The most impressive guys are the ones who trust the plan and are disciplined with it. That’s something that I see with George. Whether it’s in the cage or with his hitting routine, he doesn’t let a bad day change his preparation. That relentless preparation is something that you try to develop with players. But he has always had an understanding of it.”

Lombard’s steadfast approach started to yield results: From June 6-14, he batted .333 (11-for-33) with two homers and six doubles. A tag play at second base on June 16 that resulted in a couple of sprained fingers and sent him to the 7-day injured list may have slowed his momentum toward the bigs, but he’s not focused on that right now.

“I had one goal, and it was just to be here in Scranton this year,” he said. “Past that, I wouldn’t say that I have strict goals as to where I want to be because a million things can happen. My main goal is to get a little better every day. Learning how I can improve and putting 100% focus on my work day-in and day-out is what I want to do. I think that will put me in a position to succeed. I’m going through my process every day and preparing for whatever happens in the future.”

Alfred Santasiere III is the editor-in-chief of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the July 2026 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.