SAN DIEGO — George Lombard Jr. has already cleared the test the Yankees feared most.
Imaging found no structural damage in his right knee, and the 21-year-old shortstop has spent the week moving closer to game speed instead of toward the injured list.
That was the reassuring part after Lombard twisted the knee on an awkward checked swing during the second game of the Yankees’ Aug. 29 doubleheader against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. He stayed in long enough to single, played the top of the third inning, then came out. The Yankees later said he was receiving treatment for inflammation and soreness around the kneecap and patella tendon.
The interruption came at an awkward point in Lombard’s first month in the majors. He had hit .253/.310/.367 with two home runs through 23 games, but his defense had become a nightly focus after a string of errors. The Yankees had just seen him play a clean game at shortstop on Aug. 28 before the knee forced another pause one day later.
New York kept winning without him. Jose Caballero started four straight games at shortstop, and the Yankees went 3-1, including Wednesday’s 6-3, 10-inning victory over the Angels at Angel Stadium. MLB’s standings entering Friday list the Yankees at 80-60, three games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East, with a three-game series against the Padres beginning at Petco Park.
Boone expects Friday return but stops short of full clearance
The Yankees expect Lombard back in the starting lineup Friday. Aaron Boone has not treated that expectation as a guarantee.
That distinction is the final caution hanging over the rookie’s return. Lombard has run in the outfield, completed agility work, and taken ground balls on multiple days. What he has not been able to reproduce in a controlled pregame setting is every sudden, reactive movement that can happen once a shortstop is forced to respond to a live ball, a runner, or an awkward body position.
Boone made clear Wednesday that the Yankees liked the direction of Lombard’s recovery, but he stopped short of declaring the decision complete.
“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,” Boone said.
The Yankees also expected Lombard to be available off the bench Wednesday, another sign that his workload had advanced. Thursday’s scheduled off day gave the knee one more day without a game before the Padres series.
As of early Friday, MLB’s official lineup page still listed the Yankees’ starting lineup as TBD. That leaves Boone’s expectation intact, but it also preserves the small window for the club to reassess Lombard before first pitch.
The last test is movement Yankees cannot script
Lombard’s own description of the injury explains why Boone’s language remains measured.
The rookie said the knee did not bother him on every movement. The discomfort showed up on specific, less predictable actions. That makes ordinary running and scheduled fielding work useful checkpoints, but not perfect replicas of a major league game.
“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 is the key difference between being medically reassured and being completely baseball-tested.
In Lombard’s case, the MRI ruled out a tear. Agility drills can show that he can accelerate, stop, and change direction. Ground balls can test his setup, footwork, and throws. But a shortstop does not know whether the next play will require a backhand in the hole, a hurried transfer across his body, a dive, a late check step, or a sudden adjustment around the bag.
The Yankees therefore have reason to be optimistic without pretending the final answer has already arrived. Friday would be the first chance to see how Lombard’s knee responds when those movements are dictated by the game instead of a drill.
Yankees are putting position back in Lombard’s hands
The Yankees could use Caballero again if they wanted to extend the runway. Boone’s plan points the other way.
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. The combination captures why the Yankees have so much invested in getting this return right.
The rookie’s upside has been obvious. He homered in his major league debut and immediately showed the range and athleticism that made him one of the organization’s top prospects. His recent stretch also showed how quickly the position can expose a young player. Lombard made errors in five consecutive games at one point, a Yankees shortstop skid not seen since 1915.
The knee injury did not erase those questions. It delayed the Yankees’ chance to see how Lombard would respond to them.
That makes Friday more than a simple return from inflammation. It is also a restart of the Yankees’ evaluation of whether Lombard can hold shortstop through a September postseason race.
If Lombard starts Friday, the Yankees will be watching whether the knee stays quiet when the game demands something unplanned. That is why Boone can expect his shortstop back while still refusing to treat the return as fully settled before Lombard passes one final, unscripted test.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
