First-round pick Jacob Lombard brings Miami roots, MLB pedigree to Marlins
On Thursday morning, 2026 first-round pick Jacob Lombard stood on the field at loanDepot park for the first time as a professional before signing his contract with the Miami Marlins.
But his family’s baseball pedigree has already taken him to his fair share of big-league ballparks.
Selected No. 14 overall after being widely projected to go inside the top 10, the 18-year-old arrives with a résumé almost tailored for Miami. A product of Miami’s Gulliver Preparatory School, he is the son of former MLB player George Lombard and the younger brother of Yankees prospect George Lombard Jr.
“Growing up and having family in the game prepares me,” Lombard said. “I talk to my brother about what he faces on a daily basis in the minor leagues. Of course, I also have conversations with my dad because he had a 16-year career and is still around the game.”
Lombard signed with the Marlins for a $5 million bonus, according to MLB insider Francys Romero, the sixth-highest draft bonus in franchise history.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Frankie Piliere, the Marlins’ vice president of amateur forecasting and player evaluation initiatives. “Our scouts did a great job on him. You have things you root for in the draft, so when he was available to us, we were very excited. We were lucky to get the opportunity to draft him, and we’re really excited that it came together.”
The shortstop hit .477 with nine home runs, 25 RBI and 52 runs scored during his senior season, earning Miami Herald Dade 4A-1A Baseball Player of the Year honors.
He was also a standout soccer player during his time at Gulliver, helping the Raiders win consecutive state championships in 2023 and 2024 and scoring the winning goal in the second title game, a 1-0 win against Orlando Bishop Moore.
Eventually, Lombard traded his soccer cleats for baseball spikes to focus fully on the sport he hoped to pursue professionally.
“It was hard. I love the sport a lot,” Lombard said of his decision to stop playing soccer. “A lot of my best friends since I was young were on that same team. But I knew what I wanted to do. It was a sacrifice, just like all of the other sacrifices I’ve made to make myself the best player I can be.”
He entered the draft ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 5 overall prospect and had committed to the University of Miami before being drafted and signing with the Marlins.
The jump from high school to professional baseball will still require an adjustment, but Lombard believes growing up around the game has prepared him for the daily demands that come with it.
“I think mentally I’m in a very good spot,” Lombard said. “I’m pretty prepared because I know what a daily schedule looks like. There won’t be too many surprises. Now that I’m doing this every day as a job, it’s about polishing myself as a baseball player and becoming more consistent.”
The next step in Lombard’s transition will begin next week when he joins the rest of the Marlins’ 2026 draft class for the organization’s draft camp.
There, Miami’s newest signees will begin adjusting to the demands of professional baseball before receiving their first assignments.
“We challenge our players and put them in environments that are not easy. We have all the confidence in the world that he will handle it,” Bendix said. “He’s going to respond really well to those challenges. It’s going to be hard, but he knows that. And that’s how players get better “
The Miami native, who is of Cuban descent, even showed off his Spanish while fielding questions from El Nuevo Herald’s Jorge Ebro.
Most notably, he offered a confident response when asked whether he expected to reach the major leagues within the next two years.
“Sí, claro que si” Lombard said.
Yes, of course.