A possible knee injury for George Lombard Jr. may have opened the door for a familiar name to reenter the Yankees’ shortstop picture.
Lombard, New York’s No. 1 prospect, appeared to tweak his knee in his first at-bat of the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox. He stayed in the game at first, but the Yankees later pulled him in the fourth inning. The club said the 2023 first-round draft pick exited with “right knee discomfort” and was set to have imaging done Saturday night.
The timing matters because Lombard has been one of the Yankees’ newest big-league pieces since his MLB debut on Aug. 4.
In 23 games, the 21-year-old is batting .253 with two home runs, six RBIs and 12 runs scored. He also went through a rough patch defensively, committing an error in six straight games.
If Lombard needs time beyond Saturday, the Yankees could look toward Anthony Volpe as a possible answer at shortstop. Volpe, 25, began the year late after offseason left shoulder surgery and was sent to Triple-A when Lombard was brought up. Across 56 games with the Yankees this season, the 2019 first-round pick hit .240 with one home run, 19 RBIs and seven stolen bases.
Since his move to the minors earlier this month, Volpe has seen action at second base and even played third base for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Saturday. Still, his big-league reps have come only at shortstop, where he won the 2023 Gold Glove Award.
There’s another possible route, too. The Yankees could turn to José Caballero as their primary shortstop if Lombard is out, while third baseman Ryan McMahon is also getting closer to a return from a left thumb sprain. That gives New York a few different ways to piece together its infield, pending the next update on Lombard.
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