Less than a month into his career, New York Yankees shortstop George Lombard Jr. can indisputably claim that he’s made franchise history after accomplishing a feat not seen since World War I.
Incredibly, Thursday night’s loss to the Astros marked the sixth straight night that Lombard committed an error. No Yankees shortstop has had such a streak since former shortstop and player-manager Roger Peckinpaugh in 1915.
The official scorer charged Lombard with a throwing error in the eighth inning of Thursday’s 5-1 loss to the Astros. To his credit, the 21-year-old called his recent play “not acceptable” and took full responsibility when speaking with reporters.
“If you make your pitchers have to get extra outs it just makes it way harder on us, and teams are going to capitalize,” Lombard said. “So it’s something that we’re definitely going to have to clean up and I’ve got to be better tomorrow.”
The New York Yankees must stick with George Lombard Jr. rather than turn back to Anthony Volpe
Six errors in the last six games for Lombard Jr. pic.twitter.com/B8UbguML8H
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 28, 2026
Yankees fans are justified in their frustration with Lombard, especially after four years of watching Anthony Volpe’s horrific defense at shortstop. All it takes is one error to completely derail an inning. Just ask Cubs fans old enough to remember Alex Gonzalez and the 2003 NLCS.
Social media users have nonetheless engaged in revisionist history about Volpe, claiming his defense was never as bad as Lombard’s. And while it’s true Volpe never had a streak as long as the one Lombard has put together, why ignore the fact that the former had 56 errors in 526 career games?
Lombard's bat has cooled off, and he enters Friday hitting .264 with two home runs, six RBI, and a .705 OPS. Yet Baseball-Reference values his bWAR at 0.9 in only 20 games and FanGraphs has him at 0.3 fWAR. For the sake of conversation, let’s say Lombard is somewhere in the middle and is worth 0.6 bWAR.
Volpe has been worth 2.6 bWAR in 209 games since the start of last season. He's hit just .218 with a .659 OPS over that time, and that’s not even factoring in his baserunning and overall lack of awareness. Demoting or benching Lombard to put Volpe back in the lineup is not only incredibly dangerous, but nonsensical and only stands to hurt the Yankees.
If it appears we’re being harsh on Volpe, it’s because neither Aaron Boone nor Aaron Judge opted to do so publicly. Boone would repeatedly insist Volpe was a strong defender who would eventually come into his own, and Judge has historically shied away from openly holding teammates accountable.
Giancarlo Stanton’s recent setback only increases the pressure on the Yankees’ younger bats to step up down the stretch. New York is only four games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East entering this weekend’s three-game set with the Red Sox. Otherwise, the Yankees are on pace to be the AL’s top Wild Card seed, and they would host the Red Sox in the first round.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and Boone’s infamous loyalty to his players has to pay off at some point. Perhaps it’ll be Lombard who succeeds where Volpe, Camilo Doval, and Devin Williams never did.
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