{"id":792045,"date":"2026-07-10T04:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T04:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/792045\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T04:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T04:22:10","slug":"yankees-mulling-late-season-call-for-george-lombard-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/792045\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Mulling Late-Season Call For George Lombard Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman met with reporters on Thursday afternoon to provide some health updates and discuss the club\u2019s early deadline outlook (links via Chris Kirschner of The Athletic<\/a> and Bryan Hoch of MLB.com<\/a>). The most notable update is that\u00a0Aaron Judge<\/a> is expected to go for his first round of re-imaging on his fractured rib during the All-Star Break.<\/p>\n

It has been six weeks since Judge went on the injured list. He\u2019d played through the injury throughout May, and it\u2019s believed he suffered it on a diving play on April 26. At the time of the IL placement, the Yankees announced it\u2019d be 4-6 weeks before the three-time MVP could go for further testing. Cashman said today the Yankees don\u2019t anticipate the fracture will be fully healed, merely hoping that it\u2019s showing progress. That\u2019d allow Judge to expand his upper body work.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clearly still going to be a long process even if the test results are encouraging. Cashman reiterated that the Yankees anticipate Judge will be back at some point this year. They\u2019ve otherwise been hesitant to specify a timeline until they see how the fracture is healing.<\/p>\n

New York has gone 15-19 since Judge went on the shelf.\u00a0Paul Goldschmidt<\/a> was their only productive hitter in June. He\u2019s ice cold now but\u00a0Ben Rice<\/a> has gone back on a tear to carry the lineup in July.\u00a0Cody Bellinger<\/a>,\u00a0Jazz Chisholm Jr.<\/a>,\u00a0Anthony Volpe<\/a> and\u00a0Jasson Dom\u00ednguez<\/a> have all slumped of late.\u00a0Austin Wells<\/a> hasn\u2019t produced at the plate all season.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nevertheless enough talent that the Yankees are probably comfortable with seven or eight lineup spots. Rice, Chisholm, Bellinger and Trent Grisham<\/a> are all locked in. They\u2019re not going to trade for a right fielder when they expect Judge back. Even though\u00a0Ryan McMahon<\/a> hasn\u2019t been great, the third base market is thin enough that it\u2019d be tough to find a clear upgrade. Goldschmidt has had a strong enough season overall to keep him as the regular designated hitter while\u00a0Giancarlo Stanton<\/a> works back from calf injuries.<\/p>\n

That leaves shortstop and catcher as the two positions in flux. It\u2019s a day-by-day situation at shortstop, where skipper Aaron Boone divides playing time between Volpe and\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Caballero<\/a>. The Yankees haven\u2019t gotten anything offensively from their catching group of Wells,\u00a0Ali S\u00e1nchez<\/a> and\u00a0J.C. Escarra<\/a>. It\u2019s no secret they\u2019re looking to upgrade there, ideally with a right-handed bat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cashman praised the catchers\u2019 defensive contributions but called their production at the plate \u201can issue, clearly. \u2026 On the offensive side, it\u2019s been a struggle, and it\u2019s a surprise. We feel like we have players capable of a lot more. I recognize and acknowledge how difficult this game can be, and so it\u2019s become an area of concern, clearly, when it wasn\u2019t expected to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yankees have been linked to Minnesota\u2019s\u00a0Ryan Jeffers<\/a>, who could make his return from hamate surgery as soon as tomorrow.\u00a0Tyler Stephenson<\/a>,\u00a0Jonah Heim<\/a>,\u00a0Joey Bart<\/a>,\u00a0Jake Rogers<\/a> and old friend\u00a0Kyle Higashioka<\/a> are potential fallback targets.\u00a0Hunter Goodman<\/a> or Shea Langeliers<\/a> would be the prizes of the market if they\u2019re surprisingly made available by the Rockies or A\u2019s, respectively.<\/p>\n

Catcher and high-leverage relief are the expected deadline priorities<\/a> for Cashman and his staff. It seems less likely they\u2019ll go outside the organization for a shortstop. Top prospect George Lombard Jr.<\/a> is nearing a return from the Triple-A injured list after suffering a finger sprain on his left hand. Cashman said the Yankees are keeping the door open for the 21-year-old to make his MLB debut before the end of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking forward to getting him back and active, and he might be a choice at some point,\u201d Cashman said of the 2023 first-round pick. \u201cMore importantly, we just got to get him playing again and turning him loose again in Triple A. Really talented player that, offensively, was coming a long way of closing the gap despite his age. Defensively, he\u2019s plug-and-play, ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lombard opened the season in Double-A, where he raked over 20 games to earn a promotion to Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre by the end of April. He owns a .231\/.381\/.385 line with four homers in 42 contests with the RailRiders. It\u2019s an unimpressive batting average, but Lombard hasn\u2019t chased outside the strike zone and has posted strong batted ball metrics.<\/p>\n

With Lombard looming, it\u2019s unsurprising that Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a> writes that the Yankees don\u2019t appear to be prioritizing shortstop at the deadline. Heyman reports that New York could be in the rotation mix along with their obvious targets behind the plate and at the back of the bullpen.<\/p>\n

That\u2019d be in response to losing Carlos Rod\u00f3n<\/a> to elbow inflammation last week, though they\u2019re still better positioned than most contenders in terms of starting pitching.\u00a0Max Fried<\/a> and Rod\u00f3n are potential late-season reinforcements behind a group that already has\u00a0Gerrit Cole<\/a>,\u00a0Cam Schlittler<\/a>,\u00a0Will Warren<\/a> and\u00a0Ryan Weathers<\/a>. Weathers and Warren are vulnerable to the home run ball and the former could have some workload questions down the stretch. If the Yankees were to add a back-end starter, they could consider moving Weathers to the bullpen leading up to the postseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yankees general manager Brian Cashman met with reporters on Thursday afternoon to provide some health updates and discuss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[465,66322,49,48,30888,462,82],"class_list":["post-792045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-judge","tag-austin-wells","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-george-lombard-jr","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}