Yankees, George Lombard Jr. see massive shifts in new Baseball America prospect rankings

New York Yankees fans have been clamoring for George Lombard Jr. for a long while. After struggling to adapt to Double-A last season, New York's top prospect laid waste to the competition in his second go-around this year, hitting .312/.400/.571 over 20 games at Somerset. That got him the call to Scranton, where he announced himself right away — not with his bat or his glove, but with his legs.

That's the thing about Lombard Jr. He's no one-trick pony. He's put in the work to be an offensive force, defensive wizard, and base-running maven, all while developing some positional flexibility along the way. For that, he's been rewarded with a shot up in the latest Baseball America top 100 rankings, coming in at No. 11.

The 21-year-old has been riding a rocket ship, sailing from No. 88 in the top 100 last season to No. 43 on the preseason list to No. 15 in the May update ... and now he's just a hair away from cracking the top 10.

With that, you'd think he was tearing up Triple-A, but much like last year when he got promoted, the production hasn't quite been there with a .231/.381/.385 line. You're not wrong if you think that doesn't sound great, but you'd also be missing the point.

Lombard Jr.'s underlying metrics are excellent at Triple-A, and it's only a matter of time before they show through in the results. He's posted a 50% hard-hit rate (89th percentile), a 94.3 miles per hour 50th percentile exit velocity (88th percentile), and a 22.4% pulled air percentage (78th percentile). He's also demonstrated stellar plate discipline, with a 21.65% chase rate that ranks in the 81st percentile.

He did similar things when he arrived in Somerset, and the production eventually came around. More importantly, he's showing that the tools are real, which is the most important part of prospect development.

In fact, the production is already starting to blossom. Lombard Jr. hasn't played since June 16 while dealing with a couple of sprained fingers. While the injury isn't too serious, it has kept him out of action for over two weeks. Up until that point, he had been really heating up, though, with a .306/.426/.571 line and two homers since June 1.

George Lombard Jr. isn't the only Yankees prospect moving up the rankings

In addition to Lombard Jr., the Yankees had a trio of new prospects arrive in BA's top 30 list for the club.

Coming in at No. 19 is recently-signed Chien-Fan Lai, an 18-year-old right-handed pitcher out of Taiwan. Lai has been assigned to the Dominican Summer League, but has yet to make his debut. Still, it looks as if the Yankees' revamped scouting department is already paying dividends with this placement.

Next is 19-year-old outfielder Wilberson De Pena, who was acquired from the Los Angeles Angels last year's deadline in exchange for Oswald Peraza. At the time, De Pena was repeating the DSL for the second straight season and hit a combined .204/.320/.447 last year between both organizations. Now stateside in the Florida Complex League, De Pena is hitting .343/.400/.645 with 12 homers and 18 steals in 42 games. He went from unranked to No.12 in the system. Not too shabby a return.

Last but not least is Henry Lalane, the towering but oft-injured lefty who had fallen out of favor with evaluators. From 2023-2025, Lalane had managed to throw just 53 1/3 total innings, with shoulder issues being the biggest barrier between him and the mound.

Standing at six-foot-seven, just like Carlos Lagrange, Lalane finally seems healthy and has been tearing it up down in Tampa. He's made 12 Single-A appearances (11 starts) and has recorded a 3.09 ERA while striking out 31.3% of batters he's faced over 55 1/3 innings. His most recent start was a seven-inning shutout in which he fanned 12.

The 22-year-old hurler vaulted from the realm of the unranked to No. 5 in the Yankees system, per Baseball America. If he can stay healthy, and it looks like he finally is, the sky is the limit for the flame-throwing southpaw.

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