Marlins Introduce Hometown Kid, First Round Draft Pick

MIAMI — With few exceptions, the MLB Draft doesn’t come with instant gratification. 

It takes years until a draft pick lives up to the promise and make it to the big leagues. Especially one who is coming from the high school ranks. 

The Miami Marlins chose not only the high school angle but the local angle as well, in selecting Gulliver Prep shortstop Jacob Lombard in the first round. 

Frankie Piliere, Marlins vice president of amateur forecasting & player evaluation initiatives, told reporters on Thursday that the Marlins have scouted Lombard for much of his high school career and that drafting him was “a long time coming.” 

Yet with Lombard being ranked as the No. 5 draft prospect by MLB Pipeline, even Piliere wasn’t sure if they would even get the chance. 

“We're lucky to get the opportunity to draft him,” Piliere said. “We weren't really sure until probably the night before, where it started to really look like an opportunity. But it's really a culmination of a lot of work on a really awesome young player, and we're really excited that it came together.”

Lombard walked the halls of loanDepot park for the first time as a Marlin, donning the crisp white jersey with the name printed in all caps on the Jumbotron. Lombard told the local media that he ran scenarios through his head as the draft commenced and now that he is with the hometown team, he has just “been itching to just start playing again.”

“I see myself as a pretty good athlete, and now when I'm doing this every day as a job,” Lombard said. “I feel like that polishing of a baseball player and getting more consistent in all aspects will come.”

While this is Lombard’s first appearance as a Marlin, he is no stranger to loanDepot park. He grew up around Marlins baseball, attending games as a kid. He played on this field in the Prep Baseball All-American game. His best memories were his most recent ones when he saw the U.S. take on the Dominican Republic and Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic.

“Some of my best memories of watching games were here in that WBC,” Lombard said. 

Baseball is in the Lombard family business. His father, George Lombard Sr., spent some time as a Major Leaguer and is currently a member of the Detroit Tigers coaching staff. His older brother, George Lombard Jr., was also a first-round draft pick and is currently the New York Yankees’ top-ranked prospect.

Pittsburgh’s Konnor Griffin is proof that if you’re going to be a high draft pick from the prep ranks, you've got to be an athlete. Lombard has been seen on video performing handstands and back flips and was once given the scouting report from his brother as a player who “can really run the bases, hits for power, gets his knocks.”

Coming to their lap at No. 14, it was hard for the Marlins to justify not picking him. Lombard will first take part in draft camp next week and then, from there, who knows which minor league team he’ll start his career with. Single-A Jupiter is the logical choice, but previous top draft picks have started in higher levels in the past. 

“We have all the confidence in the world about how he will handle it on the field, athletically, all of that, but even more so, you get to see the kind of person he is,” Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said. “He's going to respond really well to those challenges, and it's going to be hard. But I think he knows that, and that is how people get better.”

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