Ryan Garcia
The Yankees were backed into a corner and had to promote Cam Schlittler to replace an injured Clarke Schmidt, who had torn his UCL in a brutal four-game sweep in Toronto.
Little would we know, this devastating trip would plant the seeds for a star emerging, as Schlittler has quickly become the team’s ace in less than a calendar year.
Not every call-up is going to work that way, the team had to make an emergency call-up of Will Warren in 2024 and…that was certainly an experience.
You could also look at Anthony Volpe, the top-10 prospect in MLB who was named the Opening Day shortstop and within four years got outplayed by Jose Caballero for his starting job.
Prospects come with risk and upside, and there are two names in Triple-A who everyone is clamouring to bring up, but are they going to be ready for a playoff run 2026?
READ: Yankees should consider these 3 options at the trade deadline
Is George Lombard Jr. The Yankees’ Shortstop in 2026?
The Yankees are not a complete disaster at shortstop, ranking 14th in WAR (1.4) and 12th in wRC+ (95), but I think that’s the Goldilocks Zone for promoting a prospect like George Lombard Jr.
Both of those players could step-in for Lombard if he is overmatched by MLB pitching, and I believe the Yankees’ top prospect has all of the chops to become a star player at the Major League level.
I entered the season with a less-than-rosy view of his bat, there wasn’t nearly enough contact given his underwhelming power output, but he’s grown into his frame and has become a really well-rounded bat.
He had the best prolonged stretch of offense in his career at Double-A this year, smoking four home runs in 20 games with a 155 wRC+ and getting a promotion to Triple-A Scranton at just 20-years-old.
Lombard is in the 94th Percentile in SEAGER and the 83rd Percentile in Damage Rate, which is a fancier way of saying that he makes elite swing decisions and has excellent contact quality.
There’s some collapse risk due to his 27th Percentile Whiff%, but a lot of that is due to how often he misses on swings out-of-zone, which I’d prefer over him weakly tapping that ball if it’s not a two-strike count.
Prospect Savant has a similarity score metric, and 2023 Andrew McCutchen drew the closest similarity to Lombard’s profile, which becomes even more intruiging when you dig into their paths to the big leagues.
Both McCutchen and Lombard were athletic prep bats selected in the first round out of Florida, and both of them were regarded as hitters would display better power with time and development.
Andrew McCutchen never recorded an ISO better than .156 in an MiLB season until 2009, where he had a .189 ISO as a 22-year-old in Triple-A across 49 games before making his MLB debut that summer.
I do not think that Lombard is recording a 144 wRC+ with 41 WAR through his age-28 season, but I do think we can look at the offensive output he had when he was a 2-3 WAR outfield bat as a 75th Percentile outcome for him.
From 2016-2024, McCutchen ran a .250/.347/.429 slashline with a high walk rate, decent power, and solid strikeout rates, producing a 111 wRC+ across 4,652 plate appearances.
If the Yankees got that kind of offense out of George Lombard Jr. at the Major League level over an extended period of time, he could become a legitimate star player.
An above-average bat at a premium position is hard to come by, and it’s even harder to find that while getting elite defense, which is what George Lombard Jr. could provide.
His excellent mobility at 6’2 gives him the ability to range to his left or right and stop grounders that some shortstops like Anthony Volpe or Jose Caballero just can’t get to because of their smaller statures.
Lombard pairs this with elite body control as he can contort his body to whip the ball across the diamond even if his momentum is taking him in the opposite direction.
There’s a lot of peak Carlos Correa on the defensive side of the ball; an excellent technical defender at shortstop with the length and arm talent of a third baseman.
He’s going to make plays that you won’t see most shortstops make because of that outlier skillset, and I think there’s a legitimate argument that George Lombard Jr. is the Yankees’ best option at shortstop right now.
I’d give him 4-6 more weeks in Triple-A to see if he continues hammering the ball, but the noise around him being called up has gone from unrealistic to deserved in a hurry.
Will Carlos Lagrange Get Big Outs in October?
Carlos Lagrange is in a deloading process as the Yankees work him down from his starter role to a bullpen role, which will require more time at Triple-A even if the talent might be MLB-ready right now.
In his three relief appearances, Lagrange has allowed three runs in 9.2 IP with a 39.5% K% and a 7.9% BB%, displaying utterly dominant swing-and-miss abilities.
His fastball and slider/cutter have become more effective thanks to having better command in this compressed role, which lines up with the theory that he may have been getting fatigued in outings as a starter.
I like that he’s dialed up the changeup usage in relief since he can power that pitch by both righties and lefties, I don’t think he should be giving hitters an inch with soft stuff like his sweeper if he doesn’t have command of it.
MLB hitters have a .195 AVG and .273 wOBA on four-seamers at 98+ MPH across the league, just powering them with velocity to set up the hard slider and 90+ MPH changeup will work wonders here.
This is a much easier scout than George Lombard Jr. who carries a level of uncertainty about how that bat will translate, Lagrange has the elite-level stuff and if he throws enough strikes it’ll translate well in an MLB bullpen.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a top-two reliever on this team after the trade deadline given just how much raw upside he presents and I think there’s a really underrated skill he possesses that often gets overlooked.
People around the organization rave about his pitchability, and in my write-ups before the regular season I noted that Lagrange avoids just throwing a bunch of four-seamers and tries to actually set hitters up for whiffs.
The only reason I question his ability to start is because of his poor command, which seems to have improved dramatically in this contracted role as a reliever.
Easy decision to bet on him getting called up before the trade deadline assuming that he stays healthy, this guy has a high percentage chance of being the Yankees’ fireman in October.
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