After a hot start to his MLB career on both sides of the ball, George Lombard Jr. has taken his lumps in the second half of August. He has a .563 OPS in his last 14 games and recently had a streak of errors in six consecutive games, though optimism of course remains high on his long-term outlook. Anyone can go through a tough stretch after all, especially as a rookie.
But Lombard might have hit a new hurdle during the nightcap of the Yankees’ Saturday doubleheader against the Red Sox. During an at-bat against Brayan Bello, he checked his swing but appeared to hurt his knee in the process. To be clear, this is just conjecture on my end, but that area certainly seemed to be causing serious discomfort. Lombard remained in the game to finish his at-bat — remarkably in hindsight, a single to left — and stayed in long enough to play the field and take another trip to the plate.
By the start of the fourth inning, however, the 21-year-old was forced from the game. José Caballero moved to the six and Amed Rosario entered at third base.
Any sort of lower-half injury is alarming, particularly at this point in the season. They can take a little while to recover from, and the postseason begins in exactly one month. The best-case scenario is that Lombard just had cramping of some kind or a different minor ailment.
The official diagnosis in the short term was “right knee discomfort.”
Unfortunately, it may be best to mentally prepare for the possibility that Lombard has to miss time. If he does, the most logical move is to bring Anthony Volpe back from the minors. Lombard’s predecessor as the Hot New Thing™ at shortstop has primarily been working at second since his demotion that coincided with Lombard’s promotion, though he also coincidentally got his first start at third tonight. But 2025 aside, Volpe remains a good defensive shortstop, so if that’s the goal, then he would step in for Lombard, at minimum in a timeshare with Caballero.
We’ll find out soon enough what the imaging says. Cross your fingers and knock on some wood.
Read the full article here