![\"BRONX](\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/0CoVVdTCdZQ\/maxresdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The New York Yankees have given away a lot of young talent to land a slew of All-Star veterans in recent seasons.<\/p>\n
The team traded away a catcher and four pitchers, including Michael King, to land Juan Soto and Trent Grisham ahead of the 2024 campaign. And then it traded away Caleb Durbin and Cody Poteet in a pair of moves that added Cody Bellinger and Devin Williams this past winter.<\/p>\n
But the team has managed to hold onto some of its promising youngsters, including 19-year-old infielder George Lombard Jr.<\/p>\n
The Yankees picked Lombard in the first round of the 2023 Major League Baseball draft as he showed some intriguing tools playing for a Florida prep school. It surely helped that he’s the son of long-time major league outfielder George Lombard Sr., who now serves as a bench coach for the Detroit Tigers.<\/p>\n
But even the Yankees have to be pleasantly surprised by the younger Lombard’s recent progress.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old was slashing a stellar .311\/.466\/.356 in High-A earlier this season before the Yankees opted to promote him to Double-A, where he’s already slugged a pair of homers in his first 21 at-bats.<\/p>\n
And now he’s taken the largest leap of any baseball prospect in the MLB Pipeline rankings, jumping up 49 spots to become the No. 44 ranked player in the sport.<\/p>\n
“Lombard was our first in-season addition to the Top 100 after a good showing in Major League camp this spring as the result of a simplified swing and added strength,” Sam Dykstra wrote for MLB.com. “Already considered a potential plus defender at shortstop, he has moved to Double-A Somerset at just 19 years old because High-A proved to be no challenge for him.”<\/p>\n
The Yankees seem all set at shortstop with Anthony Volpe, but the rest of the infield is a question mark, particularly after a significant oblique injury to Jazz Chisholm Jr.<\/p>\n
While the organization almost certainly wouldn’t add their teenage phenom to the big-league roster this year, no matter how well he performs in the minors, he could be knocking at the door for next season. And a promotion up to Triple-A might be imminent.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The New York Yankees have given away a lot of young talent to land a slew of All-Star veterans in recent seasons. The team traded away a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":61253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n