George Lombard Jr. has long prepared for the Yankees challenge now facing him: ‘Bred for this’
Consider the overwhelming praise from a teammate. Trent Sellers had played alongside George Lombard Jr. for a couple of months in 2024 and a few months in 2025 when he had seen enough to make a prediction.
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“He is the next Derek Jeter,” Sellers, a right-handed pitching prospect, said from Double-A Somerset last year. “He is so, so good, and he’s so young. He’s going to be a Hall of Famer one day. That’s what I believe.”
Consider the overwhelming praise from a former coach and teacher. Isaac Tijerino coached Lombard in baseball from sixth grade through his senior year of high school and was also his physical education teacher at Gulliver Prep in Pinecrest, Fla.
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“He was such a good kid — the type of kid that you want your daughter dating, marrying,” Tijerino said over the phone Tuesday. “When scouts were calling me about him, that was my description about the type of kid he was.”
