{"id":314325,"date":"2026-08-05T14:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/314325\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T14:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:36:14","slug":"for-the-yankees-newcomers-the-bronx-might-as-well-be-fantasyland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/314325\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Yankees\u2019 newcomers, the Bronx might as well be fantasyland"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0You realize how good the New York Yankees have it on a night like Tuesday. Ryan Weathers leads a 2-0 shutout<\/a> of the St. Louis Cardinals at Yankee Stadium, and then gets asked about going to the bullpen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s what my job is and that helps us win ballgames, we all have the same end goal,\u201d said Weathers, who might be bumped later this month if Carlos Rod\u00f3n returns from an elbow injury. \u201cSo if that happens, then it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contenders scrambled for rotation help at the trade deadline. The Yankees have starters to spare. They are not perfect. But they have the second-best record in the American League, behind the Tampa Bay Rays, and they are better than they were last weekend.<\/p>\n

With three former MVPs \u2014 Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton \u2014 on the injured list, the Yankees beefed up the middle of their lineup with help from National League also-rans. They promoted the jewel of their farm system to replace Anthony Volpe at shortstop<\/a>. It feels different.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing my first day here, looking around and talking to the guys, everybody has the same mindset,\u201d said Heliot Ramos, the former San Francisco Giants left fielder<\/a> who hit cleanup on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I feel like they preach a lot: Don\u2019t feel sorry for yourself, keep going forward, do whatever you need to do to get it done. That\u2019s something that not a lot of people in life have. They set a high bar. It\u2019s an organization that\u2019s always going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can George Lombard Jr. spark the Yankees’ season?<\/p>\n

Brendan Kuty and Johnny Sweet<\/p>\n

Ramos and the other deadline prize, former Washington Nationals first baseman Luis Garc\u00eda Jr.<\/a>, stabilize the lineup without having to lead it. The spotlight lands on a different newcomer: George Lombard Jr., 21, who thrived on Day 1 with a homer in his second at-bat<\/a> and a pair of nifty double plays in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see how fluid he is out there, how physical he is,\u201d said manager Aaron Boone, who thought Lombard moved like a puma. \u201cThe ease with which he makes plays, it\u2019s kind of what I\u2019ve marveled at the last two springs being around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lombard\u2019s first double play \u2014 ranging to his right, whipping a strike to Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second \u2014 ended the top of the second. The home run, a no-doubter to left on a hanging sweeper from Hunter Dobbins, electrified the bottom of the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

Thirteen other Yankees have gone deep in their debuts, an eclectic list of all-time greats (Judge, Yogi Berra), common cards from your 1980s Topps collection (Joe Lefebvre, Dan Pasqua) and trivia answers like John Miller, the only player ever to homer in his first and last career at-bats, but not at all in between.<\/p>\n

Lombard has years to write his script, and the first page dazzled. His preface as a fast-rising prospect (No. 24 on Keith Law\u2019s preseason list<\/a>) is closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s certain parts of you that want to buy in and be like, \u2018Yeah, this is so awesome,\u2019\u201d said outfielder Spencer Jones, who preceded Lombard as a Yankees first-round draft pick. \u201cBut at the same time, it\u2019s like, prospect stuff? None of that matters. It\u2019s all fugazi. It\u2019s 25 people in a room who make a list, send it out, and expect everybody to follow along with it. So unless you\u2019re the real deal to back that up, none of those things matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the great thing about George, and what he does so well, is that he\u2019s been around baseball essentially his whole life, so he knows the importance of showing up and doing the work every single day. And that\u2019s a huge part of who he is, and part of his identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as people want to say things have been given to him, nothing\u2019s really been given to him. He\u2019s gone out there and he\u2019s done all the work. He wants to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou see how fluid he is out there, how physical he is,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said of George Lombard Jr. (Sarah Stier \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Lombard, of course, is the son of George Lombard Sr., a longtime major league coach who played parts of six MLB seasons. His brother Jacob \u2014 a first-round pick by the Miami Marlins<\/a> last month \u2014 made his pro debut in Jupiter, Fla., on Tuesday and also homered in the second plate appearance. (You really can\u2019t make this stuff up.)<\/p>\n

Boone, whose baseball lineage runs even deeper, can relate. He said the Yankees\u2019 clubhouse would help support Lombard and ease whatever burden the glare might impose. That\u2019s how Lombard sees it, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have pretty good relations with a lot of people here, so it\u2019s not like a completely new environment, just knowing some of the people already,\u201d Lombard said. \u201cWhen I first get here, everybody\u2019s coming up to say, \u2018What\u2019s up, congrats,\u2019 all the guys telling me to enjoy this moment, it only happens once. Just good conversations all day and good people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramos also seems to fit right in. He is from Puerto Rico, where the Yankees have many fans, and rooted for players such as Jorge Posada, Carlos Beltr\u00e1n and Derek Jeter. He was so thrilled to join the Yankees, he said, that he was shaking after hearing the news.<\/p>\n

Besides the allure of the pinstripes, there\u2019s a more tangible reason for Ramos to be excited. He is going from a hitter\u2019s graveyard in San Francisco to a paradise in the Bronx, especially for a hitter like him.<\/p>\n

Yankee Stadium has a jet stream to right field, and the right-handed Ramos hits more opposite-field fly balls than most hitters. This season, half of his extra-base hits have gone to right or right-center.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy approach is that way \u2014 that\u2019s who I am, that\u2019s who I\u2019ve been since I was like 5,\u201d said Ramos, who relished the challenge of hitting by the Bay, without dwelling on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to have a good approach to hit anywhere. I\u2019m just looking forward, honestly, to playing in this environment. The fans are great. I love how much they know about the game, how competitive they are. I think sometimes they\u2019re more competitive than the players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Heliot Ramos is relishing the opportunity to hit at Yankee Stadium. (Vincent Carchietta \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Volpe felt that urgency more than most. He won a Gold Glove Award as a rookie, hit a World Series grand slam in 2024, and even got an endorsement deal as a fashion model<\/a> last season. He also played through a labrum tear, led AL shortstops in errors and could not keep strikeouts from piling up. Volpe reached the majors as a top-10 prospect<\/a> in the sport, but never really improved. The Yankees finally tired of waiting.<\/p>\n

Now they will try him at second base at Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre, but that might just be to make him more marketable in a trade. The Yankees have a strong utilityman in Jos\u00e9 Caballero, and Volpe, still only 25, needs a fresh start. Someone will give it to him.<\/p>\n

The future is Lombard\u2019s, for the long-term and now. Not every day will be fantasyland, like Tuesday. But he is almost certain to be playing this fall, just like Garc\u00eda and Ramos, who have spent their entire careers with underwhelming teams.<\/p>\n

The Yankees did not go big at the deadline<\/a>. But there\u2019s a lot to like, and the new guys know it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward just to win, man,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cThis is an organization that right now is on a good run.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0You realize how good the New York Yankees have it on a night like Tuesday. Ryan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,20,9,24,321,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-314325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314325","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=314325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}