{"id":313553,"date":"2026-08-04T16:58:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/313553\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T16:58:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:58:34","slug":"yankees-to-promote-george-lombard-jr-demote-anthony-volpe-in-major-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/313553\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees to promote George Lombard Jr., demote Anthony Volpe in major shift"},"content":{"rendered":"

All season, the daily narrative<\/a> around the New York Yankees has been dominated by debates over who should start at shortstop: Anthony Volpe or Jos\u00e9 Caballero? Now, with Monday\u2019s trade deadline in the rearview, the club may have found a solution.<\/p>\n

Late Monday night, the Yankees promoted top prospect George Lombard Jr. to the majors, a league source told The Athletic. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because the roster move was not yet official.<\/p>\n

To make room for Lombard, the Yankees demoted Volpe, who was once considered the next Derek Jeter \u2014 a homegrown shortstop with immense talent who grew up obsessed with the Yankees.<\/p>\n

Instead, Volpe\u2019s star has fallen to Triple A, where he\u2019ll work to turn around an up-and-down career since winning a Gold Glove Award as a rookie in 2023. The Yankees also sent down outfielder Jasson Dom\u00ednguez \u2014 another former top prospect who has underwhelmed of late \u2014 and reliever Angel Chivilli.<\/p>\n

The moves came after the St. Louis Cardinals pummeled the Yankees 13-7 at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n

New York is also expected to add to the active roster outfielder Heliot Ramos, whom it acquired from the San Francisco Giants<\/a> on Monday before the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Which MLB teams did the most?<\/p>\n

Levi Weaver and Madison Eades<\/p>\n

Caballero will likely shift to a utility role that could include platooning at second base, third base and in the corner outfield positions.<\/p>\n

At 21 years, 63 days, Lombard will be the youngest Yankees infielder to make his major-league debut since Jeter (20 years, 337 days) in 1995, according to Baseball Reference. He will be the fifth-youngest Yankees player to debut in the last 40 years (behind Dom\u00ednguez, Dioner Navarro, Melky Cabrera and Jeter).<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

\n \u201cDefensively, he\u2019s plug-and-play-ready to go,\u201d Brian Cashman said of George Lombard Jr. The Yankees also like his offense. (Nathan Ray Seebeck \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Lombard was ranked No. 6 overall by The Athletic\u2019s Keith Law in his most recent assessment of the game\u2019s top 75 prospects<\/a>. Lombard\u2019s rise has been steady since the Yankees drafted him in the first round out of high school in Miami in 2023.<\/p>\n

The Yankees have been so high on Lombard that general manager Brian Cashman implied Monday that he refused to include him in trade talks<\/a> with the Detroit Tigers for back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal before the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did have some asks our way that we were unwilling to do,\u201d Cashman said. \u201cBut it was a very specific ask and a certain player \u2014 and a player we weren\u2019t willing to play with in that arena despite Tarik Skubal, despite how good of a pitcher he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yankees will count on Lombard to provide stability at shortstop, especially defensively, though he\u2019s capable of playing all over the infield. He\u2019s widely viewed as the best infield defender in the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefensively, he\u2019s plug-and-play-ready to go,\u201d Cashman said in early July.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe walks around like he\u2019s got, like, a vacuum on his hand,\u201d said outfielder Spencer Jones, who played with Lombard this season at Triple A. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of how I see it. Anytime a ball is hit to him, he\u2019s got a good feeling about it. He\u2019s got a good release. Throws it hard, too. It\u2019s fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lombard has a reputation as a young leader in the clubhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of it is based on his actions,\u201d Jones said. \u201cHe goes about his business and treats every (workout) with the effort he would have during the game. I don\u2019t think the game speeds up on him too much. He\u2019s one of those guys who has a good head on his shoulders. It\u2019s just a matter of experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s reason to believe Lombard could be impactful offensively, too.<\/p>\n

With Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre this season, Lombard showed encouraging plate discipline despite being one of the youngest players in the highest level of the minors. In 56 games for the RailRiders this season, Lombard posted an .845 OPS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s improved a lot offensively this year as a hitter,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said last month. \u201cHe keeps getting better and better. The one thing he does is control the zone and has some power.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe brings a lot of things to the table: good speed, outstanding defense, power and the ability to control the zone. But I feel like his hit-ability improved this year quite a bit from last year to this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caballero has said he enjoys playing shortstop every day, and he started there the last two games for the Yankees. He also has been one of the best defenders in the game at the position, according to some advanced metrics. But Caballero\u2019s value comes in his ability to cover multiple defensive positions well, grit and speed on the bases.<\/p>\n

Caballero and Lombard grew close during spring training this season, with Caballero praising the youngster\u2019s competitiveness. Lombard is also close with left fielder Cody Bellinger, whom he met when his father, George Lombard Sr., was a coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cGot baseball in his blood,\u201d Bellinger said. \u201cI saw it from a young age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Yankees fans will see it up close in the Bronx.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All season, the daily narrative around the New York Yankees has been dominated by debates over who should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,9,11,10,321],"class_list":["post-313553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}