Considering how it looked in the moment, George Lombard Jr. may have avoided the worst.
The Yankees’ top prospect “sprained a couple fingers” on his left hand, a team spokesman said Wednesday night, a day after Lombard left Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s game after jamming his left hand into a base stealer while covering second base.
Lombard underwent tests Wednesday that came back negative, though it remains to be seen how long the sprained fingers will sideline him.
The 21-year-old shortstop is hitting .231 with a .765 OPS and eight steals through 42 games at Triple-A, though he has been better of late after a slow start following an early-season promotion from Double-A.
Lombard has a chance to play his way into the Yankees’ plans this season depending on how he performs.
The organization already believes he is big league-ready defensively — he has also mixed in third base and second base — but the question will be whether he can hit consistently enough to arrive in The Bronx this year.
Of course, that also depends on how José Caballero and Anthony Volpe handle splitting shortstop duties for the Yankees.
After throwing all of his pitches “with good intensity” Tuesday in his first full bullpen session since going on the injured list with a left elbow bone bruise last month, Max Fried reported feeling good Wednesday, the latest positive sign in his comeback.
The left-hander will still need to show improved healing in his elbow before he is cleared to fully ramp up towards a return, but assuming he continues to bounce back well in the coming days, Fried will throw another bullpen session this weekend.
“Just talking to him today, he said, ‘I felt great during it and then feel good coming into today,’ ” manager Aaron Boone said. “So it’s been encouraging, really every step of the way, since even the couple days after the Baltimore start when he went on the IL. He’s responded well to everything, which I’m hoping is a really good sign for him and for us long-term.”
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Austin Wells (cervical headaches) came through his first rehab game Tuesday without issue and was scheduled to start at catcher again Wednesday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before its game got rained out.
Facing White Sox lefty Anthony Kay (who had drastic left/right splits) on Wednesday, Boone started Caballero in left field, Cody Bellinger in center field and Jasson Domínguez in right field.
Bellinger moving to center for a day opened up left field for Domínguez, but instead Boone opted to keep him in his new home in right to get him a steady dose of reps there to see if it can work moving forward.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
