George Lombard Jr. has turned into a bit of a problem for the New York Yankees.
The honeymoon phase is over for New York Yankees shortstop George Lombard Jr., who hit a home run in his first big-league game last month and was making dazzling plays left and right in the early stages of his MLB career.
Lombard is now slashing just .220/.281/.349 over 121 plate appearances this season, walking just nine times throughout that span. In fact, has walked just twice in September.
His barrel rate is at just 5.3 percent, and his 32.9 percent hard-hit rate is not enviable. And while his defensive metrics (plus-9 DRS) look outstanding, we can't forget that he committed errors in six straight games at one point.
So, is it time to worry about Lombard?
As an individual player, no. He's just 21 years old, and it's worth noting that Lombard struggled each time he was promoted in the minor leagues.
When he was elevated from Single-A to Double-A in 2025, he labored. And when he was initially promoted to Triple-A this season, he was awful until a torrid stretch resulted in his eventual major-league call-up.
However, Lombard is becoming a bit of a dead spot in the Yankee lineup, as many of his at-bats are not even competitive anymore.
Things aren't about to get any easier, either, as Lombard is about to be thrust into postseason baseball just two months into his big-league tenure.
Lombard has a .630 OPS right now, and let's be honest here: that's lower than what Volpe had been posting at shortstop, and Yankees fans have long been ready to run Volpe out of the organization.
While I am not necessarily saying Lombard should be benched, it is fair to ask whether or not continuing to start him at shortstop gives New York the best chance to win come playoff time if he keeps trending in this direction.
Because right now, Lombard is in some serious trouble.
He's batting just .133 in September, and he's 6-for-47 since Aug. 26. Yes, he did smash a grand slam against the Colorado Rockies last week, but he's gone hitless since, and it's becoming a problem for the Yankees' offense.
Not that New York has significantly better options, but once Jazz Chisholm returns to play second base, it's fair to wonder if moving Volpe back to shortstop for the postseason and bringing Lombard off the bench would be the wisest decision. Or possibly even giving more playing time to Jose Caballero.
It's not something that has even been discussed just yet, but let's say that Lombard enters the postseason with an OPS hovering around .600. Can the Yankees afford to keep him in the lineup every day?
I firmly believe that Lombard is New York's future at shortstop. I think he will be a terrific player one day. But right now, he's a neophyte, and I'm not sure he's ready for playoff baseball just yet.
