The New York Yankees are in serious need of assistance heading into the MLB trade deadline. Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and now Cody Bellinger are all sidelined. The bullpen needs help. They have problems at catcher and shortstop.
The problem is that the Yankees don’t exactly have much time to fix all of their issues.
The deadline is on Aug. 3, and New York clearly has several holes to fill. The Yankees also may not have the prospect capital necessary to plug all of those gaps.
Apparently, New York is willing to trade anyone except top prospect George Lombard Jr., according to Bob Klapisch of NJ.com. That means any of the Yankees’ young pitchers are all on the table, and both Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones could be on their way out, as well.
But Klapisch also added more fuel to the Lombard fire, claiming that New York is seriously considering promoting him for the final couple months of the regular season.
“The Yankees have decided to wait until after the trade deadline to bring Lombard to the Bronx,” Klapisch wrote. “The club is aware that this accelerated timeline carries risk. Asking a rookie to step into a pennant race without even a full season at Triple-A would be more than most prospects could handle. But the club has enough confidence in Lombard’s maturity to proceed with the promotion.”
Lombard is slashing .282/.412/.496 with 11 home runs and 29 RBI over 325 minor-league plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this season. He has certainly been impressive.
But elevating a 21-year-old top prospect to the big leagues in the heat of a playoff chase is typically not the Yankees’ style.
Other small-market teams that have to heavily rely on their farm systems certainly do it. But the free-spending Yankees? It’s not something you usually see in the Bronx.
Especially considering how much Lombard has initially struggled every time he has been promoted in the minors, the idea of bringing the shortstop up to the majors in August would be unprecedented for New York.
But apparently, the Yanks are desperate enough to consider it.
And we now know that the Yankees absolutely won’t be moving Lombard before the trade deadline, which should come as a surprise to no one.
