Yankees' George Lombard Jr. continues meteoric rise in new Baseball America rankings

The New York Yankees have turned over a new leaf and handed the keys to a different generation at the big-league level this season, empowering both Austin Wells and Jasson Dominguez to take on more prominent roles.

While it might be a while until the generation below them calcifies in the high minors, the Yankees at least have a few shimmering bright spots to look forward to somewhere below in the murk. One of those spots just got a couple notches brighter this week.

While plenty of indecision remains about last season's fast riser, Spencer Jones, entering 2025, this season's spring training star has a bit more helium at his back, and fewer immediate question marks. George Lombard Jr. looked like a man possessed at camp after filling out a bit, leading to speculation that he could crack a few midseason Top 100 updates if he made himself noteworthy at High-A Hudson Valley.

As it turns out, he didn't even have to do that. Baseball America's final ranking prior to the start of the minor league regular season kept Dominguez as the highest-ranking Yankee (No. 27), but vaulted Lombard Jr. all the way up beside him at No. 38. Whew.

Yankees' George Lombard Jr. rises to 38th in Baseball America's Top 100 Prospects List prior to 2025 season

No, the experts at BA weren't just fooled by a hot spring showing; they believe in Lombard's maturation, power and defense, much the same way they did when he was first selected in 2023. Both the Yankees' scouts and the public-facing projection systems did not view Lombard as a short-term gain, but rather a potential long-term cornerstone, and the changes visible year-over-year are a large part of that process.

Besides his two titanic and way-more-comfortable-than-expected homers in camp, Lombard actually didn't overwhelm; he finished with a perfectly reasonable .231 average and .748 OPS in 14 big-league games. In certain moments, though, he undeniably displayed a poise beyond his years following an offseason bodily transformation.

Now, he'll return to a familiar level - Hudson Valley, where he cameo'd to end the 2024 season - to prove he can make those offseason shifts stick. The prospect gurus will certainly be watching ahead of the potential midseason re-rank.