With\u00a0Elmer Rodr\u00edguez already set to make his major league debut\u00a0on Wednesday, another Yankees prospect is moving on up.<\/p>\n
That would be the organization\u2019s top farmhand,\u00a0George Lombard Jr. A source confirmed Tuesday that the Yankees are promoting the 20-year-old from Double-A Somerset to Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0YES Network\u2019s\u00a0Jack Curry\u00a0first reported the news.<\/p>\n
Lombard, drafted 26th overall in 2023, is considered the 27th-best prospect in baseball by\u00a0MLB.com. He has shined at Double-A this season after struggling there offensively in 2025, hitting .312 with a .971 OPS, eight doubles, four home runs, eight RBI and four stolen bases over 20 games.<\/p>\n
Primarily a shortstop, the sure-handed Lombard has also spent some time at third base this season. He\u2019s played second base in the minors as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could play defense in the big leagues right now, but he\u2019s still developing on the hitting side,\u201d\u00a0Brian Cashman\u00a0said in December, before Lombard impressed in his second straight big league camp with the Yankees.<\/p>\n
The son of a former big leaguer and the Tigers\u2019 current bench coach, Lombard grew up in MLB clubhouses. Now he\u2019s one level away from working in one.<\/p>\n
Should Lombard continue to hit at Triple-A, Yankees fans will certainly be clamoring for his debut, especially if big leaguers who play his positions, such as\u00a0Anthony Volpe,\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Caballero\u00a0and\u00a0Ryan McMahon, aren\u2019t playing well.<\/p>\n
While Lombard debuting in 2026 shouldn\u2019t be ruled out, the Yankees will be patient with the young infielder. Over the winter, Cashman stressed that Lombard is still in \u201cdevelopment mode,\u201d and that remains true despite his scorching start to the season and quick ascension through the club\u2019s minor league ranks.<\/p>\n
\u201cExciting, high-ceiling talent,\u201d Cashman said at the time, \u201cbut I don\u2019t think he\u2019s ready yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pretty soon, Lombard could force the Yankees to reconsider that assessment.<\/p>\n
RailRiders rally Tuesday<\/p>\n
A big early deficit did nothing to slow down the Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Buffalo built a five-run lead in the first inning, but Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre tied the game after three, took the lead in the fifth and went on to win the series opener, 9-6, at PNC Field.<\/p>\n
Spencer Jones blasted a pair of home runs and Seth Brown and Payton Henry also went deep for the RailRiders.<\/p>\n
The Bisons batted around in the top of the first, scoring five runs on three hits and an error.<\/p>\n
Jones lined a 345-foot solo home run off MLB rehabber Jose Berrios to start the bottom of the first to narrow the deficit to 5-1.<\/p>\n
The RailRiders tacked on two more in the second. Henry singled, Duke Ellis doubled, and Duncan Pastore walked to load the bases with two outs. Jones singled in a pair to cut the Bisons\u2019 lead to 5-3.<\/p>\n
Brown blasted a game-tying, two-run home run in the bottom of the third. The 432-foot shot to center was his third of the season.<\/p>\n
Then in the fifth, Henry drilled a three-run, opposite-field blast to right off reliever Adam Macko. The 358-foot poke to right, Henry\u2019s third of the season, gave the RailRiders an 8-5 lead.<\/p>\n
Buffalo got one back in the top of the eighth, but Jones\u2019 second homer of the game capped the scoring in the bottom of the inning at 9-6.<\/p>\n
Zach Messenger worked three scoreless innings of relief behind starter Yerry De Los Santos while the offense mounted the comeback. Yovanny Cruz (4-0) pitched 1.2 scoreless for the win. Danny Watson earned his first hold of the season, and Harrison Cohen shut the door in the ninth for his first save.<\/p>\n
Eight out of nine RailRiders reached base, paced by three-hit games from Jones and Henry.<\/p>\n
Game two of this series is set for Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. Carlos Lagrange, the New York Yankees\u2019 No. 2 prospect, takes the mound for the RailRiders against the Bisons and Austin Voth.<\/p>\n
Volpe transferred<\/p>\n
New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe had his MLB rehab assignment transferred from the RailRiders to Double-A Somerset on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In four games with the RailRiders, Volpe was 4 for 15 with one home run, three RBIs and four strikeouts.<\/p>\n
DeJong\u2019s plan<\/p>\n
Infielder Paul DeJong, who signed a minor league contract in January with New York, has notified the team he will use an opt-out clause in his contract at the end of the month if he is not promoted.<\/p>\n
DeJong is hitting .203 in 23 games with the RailRiders. The 32-year-old has six home runs and 13 RBIs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With\u00a0Elmer Rodr\u00edguez already set to make his major league debut\u00a0on Wednesday, another Yankees prospect is moving on up.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[51447,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-179036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-rail-riders","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}