George Lombard Jr. is moving back toward the Yankees’ lineup, but the club still sounds like it’s waiting for one last green light before fully handing him shortstop again.
The encouraging news came first: imaging on his right knee showed no structural damage. For a player who twisted the knee on an awkward checked swing in the second game of the Yankees’ Aug. 29 doubleheader against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, that was the outcome New York needed most.
Lombard stayed in long enough to single, finished the top of the third inning, and then came out. The Yankees later said he was being treated for inflammation and soreness around the kneecap and patella tendon.
That injury landed at an inconvenient moment in the 21-year-old’s first month in the majors. Through 23 games, he had hit .253/.310/.367 with two home runs, but the defensive side of his game was already under the microscope after a run of errors.
Just a day before the knee issue, he had put together a clean game at shortstop. Then the pause hit again.
The Yankees have managed just fine in the meantime. Jose Caballero started four straight games at shortstop, and New York went 3-1, including Wednesday’s 6-3, 10-inning win over the Angels at Angel Stadium. Entering Friday, MLB’s standings had the Yankees at 80-60, three games back of Tampa Bay in the AL East, with a three-game set against the Padres opening at Petco Park.
The expectation is that Lombard will be back in the starting lineup Friday. But Aaron Boone has been careful not to sound like the decision is final.
Boone said Wednesday, “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse … but it is trending and looking like that is going to be the case,”
Lombard has been getting the kind of work you’d want to see before a return: running in the outfield, doing agility drills, and taking ground balls on multiple days. He was also expected to be available off the bench Wednesday, which suggested the workload was ramping up. Thursday’s scheduled off day gave the knee another day to calm down before the Padres series.
Still, Boone’s caution makes sense. A shortstop can look fine in drills and still be tested in ways that can’t be perfectly staged.
Lombard has said the issue isn’t constant pain. It pops up on the random, awkward movements that happen in games.
“It’s been progressing every day,” Lombard said. “There was just a little bit of inflammation in there, so it was just random moves [where I could feel it].”
That’s the part the Yankees can’t fully simulate. The MRI took the worst-case structural damage off the table, and the rehab work can prove he can run, stop, and change direction.
But a live game can ask for a backhand in the hole, a hurried transfer, a dive, or a sudden adjustment around the bag. That’s the real test still waiting.
If Lombard is back in the starting nine Friday, the Yankees will be watching more than the box score. They’ll be checking whether the knee stays quiet when the game gets messy. MLB’s official lineup page still listed the Yankees’ starting lineup as TBD early Friday, so Boone’s expectation remains in place without the club fully locking it in yet.
There’s also the performance side of this. MLB’s official player page lists Lombard at .253 with a .677 OPS, two homers, six RBIs, 20 hits, and 12 runs in 87 plate appearances.
Baseball Savant lists seven errors in 23 starts at shortstop. He homered in his major league debut and showed the range that made him one of the organization’s top prospects, but he also endured a stretch in which he made errors in five straight games, a Yankees shortstop skid not seen since 1915.
So this isn’t just a return from a knee issue. It’s the Yankees trying to get Lombard back on the field and back into the middle of their September evaluation at the same time.
Boone sounds optimistic. Just not ready to close the book before the final test arrives.
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