ARLINGTON -- The Yankees believe George Lombard Jr. is built for New York, forecasting his ascent as an elite defender who will continue to fill out physically and improve his consistency at the plate.
The organization’s top prospect now stands one level away from the Bronx. Ranked as the No. 27 prospect in all of baseball by MLB Pipeline, Lombard has been promoted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, a source confirmed to MLB.com on Tuesday.
“He’s obviously gotten off to a really good start in Double-A,” manager Aaron Boone said after the Yankees’ 3-2 win over the Rangers. “I love the player, love the person. After finishing the year last year in Double-A and wanting him to get off to a good start, which he has, I think it’s good timing to get him up to Triple-A.”
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has said the organization believes Lombard could excel defensively in the Majors right now, but they wanted to see progress at the plate after he batted .215/.337/.358 in 108 games with Double-A Somerset last season.
Lombard carried over his production from a strong spring, collecting 24 hits in 77 at-bats (.312) in his second turn against Double-A pitching. Lombard stroked eight doubles, four homers and drove in 10 runs while stealing four bases.
“He definitely made some big adjustments from the past couple of years,” said captain Aaron Judge. “He’s a guy that’s going to play elite defense at third, shortstop, wherever. And then at the plate, he uses the whole field. Great contact hitter, but he’s got some juice behind it.
“He’s going to continue to grow and get stronger and continue to develop into that power a little bit. Just seeing the consistency at the plate of good at-bats 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.”
News of Lombard’s promotion broke near the end of an encouraging day for the Yankees’ player development system.
Right-hander Elmer Rodríguez, the organization’s No. 3 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, joined the team at Globe Life Field and is scheduled to make his Major League debut on Wednesday against the Rangers.
“I’ve been excited about him since we traded for him,” Judge said of Rodríguez. “He’s going to be a big piece for us moving forward.”