2025 Futures Game roster reveal ignores one surprising Yankees strength

The New York Yankees will be represented by their shiniest star in the 2025 All-Star Futures Game on Saturday, July 12 in Atlanta. Still, it feels fair to say to the committee behind the decision: That's it? Did you miss the other side of the ball?

George Lombard Jr., MLB Pipeline's No. 37 overall prospect, will head to the ATL for his first-ever Futures Game after Spencer Jones received the spotlight in each of the last two years. Two consecutive honors is a stretch in the prospect realm; three is unheard of. Even though Jones is having his strongest season yet, he was almost certainly pre-eliminated before the process even got rolling.

Still ... it's fair to wonder about snubs on the pitching staff. The Yankees have done excellent work building up their reserves in that department lately, and Cam Schlittler in particular is really popping with a revamped arsenal at Triple-A.

Did the Guardians really need two representatives, with pitcher Parker Messick joining breakout infielder CJ Kayfus? Did Keagan Gillies have to represent the Orioles, or could we have stuck with just Enrique Bradfield Jr. in the outfield? Is this an extremely biased take? Obviously. But MLB doubled up a few times, and probably should've dipped with Schlittler instead.

Yankees send George Lombard Jr. to Futures Game roster, but no pitchers. Where's Cam Schlittler? Snubbed!

The Yankees' high-end breakout pitchers other than Schlittler don't quite have the body of work to be considered. Carlos Lagrange's numbers don't match his eye-popping stuff. Ben Hess recently missed a month, and has come down substantially from his early sprint. Griffin Herring doesn't have the juice, we guess, despite his ridiculous ERA? Maybe we're just being Selvidge here, but Brock probably deserved a second look.

If you're not familiar with Baltimore's Gillies, that's because he's a 27-year-old reliever at Double-A Bowie. A 1.15 ERA and 0.57 WHIP will certainly turn heads, but if the argument is, "Who has the most prospect pedigree?" then the answer is most certainly not a 2021 15th-rounder from Tulane. Did someone on the selection committee's finger slip? Schlittler's a newly minted Top 100 name with a 2.18 ERA in 74 1/3 innings.

Unless the Yankees themselves mandated that MLB not put any additional stress on their pitchers' arms during the All-Star break, then — wait, yeah, hold on, that's almost definitely what happened, actually.