The Yankees continue to make some cuts at spring training, this afternoon announcing that they had reassigned their top prospect George Lombard Jr. to minor league camp. Right-handed pitchers Ben Hess and Brendan Beck also were reassigned.
Lombard had an uneven but tantalizing run at big league camp, flashing his huge potential at times. His mammoth home run off of Garrett Crochet earlier in the month stands as one of the most impressive swings from a Yankee this spring training:
As impressive as that
showing was, Lombard is still just 20 and hit .185 in 11 exhibition games, with 12 strikeouts in 33 plate appearances. His time with the big club in spring was never about making the actual team, but to see how the fledgling prospect looked in a short spurt against high level competition. Lombard showed just fine in that regard, largely not looking out of place in games with actual big leaguers. He’s the team’s consensus top-ranked prospect, and his arrow is still pointed upward as he prepares to start his regular season in the high minors.
Though perhaps not as starry a talent as Lombard, Hess has played well in spring training, and is a dark horse to potentially help out the major league team this year. He impressed in a three-inning outing against the Pirates, striking out five and generating 11 whiffs in 48 pitches. Carlos Lagrange and Elmer Rodríguez are higher up on the organizational depth chart, but Hess, the Yankees’ 2024 first-round pick, could be a pick to click this summer if he can wring a little more velo out of his heater, or else make improvements to other parts of his arsenal.
Beck was part of Great Britain’s squad at the World Baseball Classic, throwing four hitless, shutout innings in a start against Brazil. The 27-year-old posted a 3.36 ERA across 131.1 innings in the high minors last year, and comes in ranked 22nd on MLB Pipeline’s Yankees top 30 list.
