NEW YORK — George Lombard Jr. had done almost everything right in his first week as a Yankee.
The 21-year-old shortstop arrived as the top prospect in the organization, the heir to a job the Yankees needed to fix. He homered for his first big-league hit. He flashed the glove that made him a first-round pick. He looked, early on, like the future.
Then came one bad hop, and with it a lesson every young Yankees player eventually learns. The Bronx does not wait long to test its newcomers.
In the sixth inning Wednesday night, with the score tied 6-6 against the Seattle Mariners, Lombard bobbled a routine ground ball and could not complete the play. It was ruled an error. The moment was small in a game the Yankees would go on to win 10-5. Online, it was anything but small.
Within minutes, a section of the fan base pounced. And the target of their mockery was not only Lombard. It was the shortstop he replaced.
Fans turn the error into a Volpe comparison
The reaction said as much about the Yankees’ recent history at shortstop as it did about Lombard. Fans quickly tied the miscue to Anthony Volpe, the former top prospect Lombard displaced, framing the error as an unwanted homage.
Some joked that the play was a tribute to Volpe. Others invoked the scorebook shorthand for a shortstop error, quipping that you can take Volpe out of the lineup but you cannot take E6 away. A few used the moment to renew calls about the position, a sign of how raw the nerve remains.
The comparison is loaded for a reason. The Yankees optioned Volpe to Triple-A in early August, ending his run as the everyday shortstop and clearing the way for Lombard. Volpe, who agreed to a $3.475 million deal to avoid arbitration before the season, had struggled at the plate and in the field, and his demotion was a franchise turning point.
For Lombard to commit a high-profile error in that context was, to some fans, irresistible material. It was also his first real brush with the harsher side of playing shortstop in New York.
Lombard was not the only one to slip
Lost in the pile-on was the fact that Lombard’s error did not cost the Yankees the game. New York trailed and led at different points before pulling away late for the 10-5 victory, its fourth straight comeback win.
He was also not the only Yankees defender to falter. Center fielder Trent Grisham made a costly misplay earlier in the game, an outfield miscommunication with Lombard on a shallow pop-up. Grisham later homered twice and drove in four runs, and his defensive lapse was quickly forgotten.
Lombard, meanwhile, kept contributing. He finished the night 2-for-4 with two runs scored from the bottom of the order. The error was a blemish on an otherwise productive game, not a collapse.
Boone and A-Rod stand behind the rookie
The people who evaluate Lombard for a living see a different player than the one being mocked online. Manager Aaron Boone has repeatedly praised the rookie’s poise, pointing to a maturity that many young players lack when they reach the majors.
“I mean, I think what you’ve seen is it’s you know, tremendous defense he’s played so far,” Boone said. “I feel like really competitive at bats. Just a great kid, great makeup. Great love of the game.”
Boone has emphasized that Lombard’s temperament may be his most important asset. He framed a love of the game’s quieter demands as the trait that separates good prospects from great ones.
“I feel like it’s very hard to not like love it and to be great,” Boone said. “To be great and not love it. Loving it means a lot of the non sexy, non big league things that go into being really good. He checks all those boxes.”
Yankees legend Alex Rodriguez offered even higher praise before the series. Speaking about Lombard at The Michael Kay Show, whom he knows through their families in Miami, Rodriguez compared his defensive value to the offensive value of the team’s biggest star.
“It’s amazing when you have a plus plus defender at short how it makes your entire team better defensively,” Rodriguez said. “Lombard can do for the Yankees defensively and for those great pitchers what Aaron Judge does for the offense. That’s how good Lombard can be.”
Lombard’s Yankees boost continues
The early returns support the optimism, not the outrage. Lombard, the 26th overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, tore through the minors this year. He hit .268 with a .845 OPS, six home runs and 10 stolen bases in 56 games at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before his call-up.
Through his first handful of major league games, he has hit near .300 with two home runs. He was given a runway of roughly two months to prove he can be the Yankees’ long-term answer at shortstop, and nothing about one error changes that plan.
The Yankees enter Thursday at 68-52, second in the AL East and holding a comfortable lead in the AL wild-card race. They close their series with Seattle in the afternoon before heading to Toronto.
Lombard will be at shortstop, error and all. The booing and the trolling were his introduction to a fan base that demands results now. How he answers the noise is the next test, and it is one the Yankees are betting he can pass.
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