George Lombard Jr. is close to returning from the hand injury that sidelined him in the middle of June, Aaron Boone said on Thursday, giving the Yankees a clearer sense that their top prospect is nearing game action again.
That matters now because Lombard, the Yankees' No. 1 prospect for 2026 on MLB Pipeline, had been out since June 16, when he left a Triple-A game early after appearing to injure his left hand while trying to catch and tag out a runner stealing second base. The Yankees later said tests came back negative, but he was dealing with sprained fingers on his glove hand. He is 21 and had been resuming hitting and fielding, the basic work that usually comes before a player is cleared to return.
Before the injury, Lombard was beginning to turn a corner at the plate. In 14 games in June, he hit.306 with a.426 on-base percentage and a.997 OPS, a sharper stretch than his overall line of.231 with four home runs, 15 RBIs and eight stolen bases in 42 games with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders this year. That production is part of why his status has drawn close attention, especially for readers tracking whether the Yankees' young talent is moving closer to New York.
There is still one wrinkle. Brian Cashman said Lombard might be a choice at some point in the second half of the season and described him as plug-and-play ready to go defensively while saying he has closed the gap he had coming into the season offensively. That leaves open whether he will need any rehab games before returning to game action, and the team has not given a date for when that could happen.
For now, the update is simple: Lombard is moving back toward the field, but the Yankees are still stopping short of saying exactly when that means a return.
