The Yankees and Mets selected highly regarded high school shortstops with their top picks in the 2023 MLB Draft, continuing a recent emphasis on the position by both teams.
George Lombard Jr. went 26th overall to the Yankees on Sunday after a standout career at the Miami-area Gulliver Preparatory School. Colin Houck of Georgia’s Parkview High School then went to the Mets with the 32nd pick.
The Mets later used the 56th pick on Brandon Sproat, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher from the University of Florida, whom they originally drafted last year but failed to sign.
In Lombard, the Yankees get a 6-foot-3, 190-pound talent with major league lineage. His father, George Lombard, played six MLB seasons and is now the Detroit Tigers bench coach.
The younger Lombard, 18, hit .478 with six home runs and 22 RBI in 29 games during his senior season at Gulliver Prep. He is committed to Vanderbilt, like former first-round pick Anthony Volpe was when the Yankees drafted him.
MLB Pipeline ranked Lombard as its No. 31 draft prospect and noted some evaluators envision him eventually moving to third base.
“George has a number of physical attributes and is an elite athlete with all five tools and skills to play shortstop,” said Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankees’ scouting director. “He has ability to impact the ball and use the whole field for power, alongside good contact skills. The makeup is a separator. He is focused on every pitch with an unquestioned work ethic.”
It’s the third time in five years the Yankees used their top pick on a shortstop. They selected Volpe out of Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J., in 2019, and Trey Sweeney out of Eastern Illinois University in 2021.
The Mets’ selection of Houck marked the second consecutive year they took a high school shortstop early. They used the 14th pick on Jett Williams in 2022.
MLB Pipeline ranked the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Houck as its 12th best draft prospect, making his slide to No. 32 a pleasant surprise for the Mets. Houck also excelled at Parkview in Gwinnett County, Ga., as a quarterback, but turned down football scholarship offers to commit to Mississippi State.
The Mets hope to sign him, as well as Sproat, who ultimately went back to Florida after the Mets selected him in the third round of the 2022 draft. Sproat recorded an elevated 4.66 ERA last season for the Gators, but did have 134 strikeouts in 106.1 innings.
The Yankees did not have a second-round pick Sunday, having forfeited that selection to sign starting pitcher Carlos Rodon.
On Monday, the Yankees used their third-round pick on lefty pitcher Kyle Parr out of Palomar College near San Diego. The Mets, meanwhile, used third-round selections on Oklahoma State right-handed pitcher/outfielder Nolan McLean and Nevada right-handed pitcher Kade Morris.
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