It took one game for George Lombard Jr. to make Yankees fans forget about Anthony Volpe

New York Yankees fans were really trying to keep their expectations for George Lombard Jr. in check. The team called up its top prospect — and No. 20 overall, per MLB Pipeline — in the wake of a disappointing deadline, hoping that plugging him in at shortstop would help turn around what had begun to feel like a sinking ship. But he just turned 21 years old in June and started this season in Double-A; asking him to be the savior for a contender felt like way too much, way too soon.

And yet, when you do things like this in your second inning of big-league baseball, you make it awfully hard to stay calm.

And when you go yard in your second career at-bat, you make it very hard:

Early in his first career start against the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night, the rookie showed exactly why scouts have pegged him as a plus shortstop for years, ranging into the hole to his right before firing a seed to Jazz Chisholm Jr. to start an inning-ending double play. It was excellent defense no matter what the context — but it was all too easy to draw comparisons from Lombard Jr, to the last top prospect who tried to play shortstop in the Bronx.

George Lombard Jr. raises Yankees ceiling more than Anthony Volpe ever could

Anthony Volpe has borne more than his fair share of blame since debuting with the Yankees back in 2023. He was worth a combined 5.4 f WAR across his first two MLB seasons, and while he took a step back in 2025, playing through a shoulder injury seemed to have a lot to do with that. But as 2026 brought more of the same inconsistencies both at the plate and in the field, it became increasingly clear that Volpe was just never going to grow into the player the team envisioned — and that running him out at a premium position every day was capping New York's ceiling.

And then, in less than two innings, Lombard Jr. showed Yankees fans exactly what they'd been missing. It's not that Volpe was a bad defender; despite what WFAN callers might have you believe, he was pretty good on the whole. But at 5-foot-10, he had clear physical limitations, consistently ranking in the bottom-third of the league in arm strength.

The 6-foot-2 son of a former big-leaguer, Lombard Jr. has always been a physical player. And in that sensational double play above, he effortlessly made a throw that Volpe simply does not have in his bag, not just getting the ball back across his body to Chisholm Jr. at second but doing so with enough zip to allow for an easy double play. Volpe at best gets the lead runner there; Lombard Jr. ended the inning. And while Volpe seemingly couldn't access in-game power without sacrificing contact, Lombard Jr. has enough juice to (and enough pull-side optimization) to naturally be a 20-homer hitter in time with strong OBPs.

Of course, development isn't linear, and despite the homer, Lombard Jr. also comes with his fair share of question marks at the plate. It's entirely possible his contact skills take a little while to adjust to MLB pitching, and that he struggles to reach league-average production as a hitter in his first taste of the Show.

But the Yankees can live with that trade-off if he keeps making plays in the field like he did on Tuesday night. With Luis Garcia Jr. and Heliot Ramos now in town and Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger hopefully back healthy in September, firepower won't be the problem. What Lombard Jr. can bring to the table is game-changing physical tools, something that's been in far too short supply in the Bronx of late.

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