MIAMI — The Marlins selected shortstop Jacob Lombard out of Miami’s Gulliver Prep with the No. 14 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft on Saturday, keeping a local product home and marking just the third time in franchise history the club has used its first-round selection on a South Florida player.
The only previous South Florida first-rounders were pitcher Chris Volstad out of Palm Beach Gardens High in 2005 and catcher Charles Johnson from the University of Miami in 1992. Lombard, ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 5 Draft prospect, is a 6-foot-3 right-handed hitter whose power and speed grades project a 30-homer, 30-steal ceiling.
“I’m really excited for him, and I’m excited for Miami, for South Florida,” said Frankie Piliere, vice president of amateur forecasting and player evaluation initiatives. “The evaluation is the evaluation, and if he was from anywhere, it’d be really great; we’d be just as excited. But I’d be lying. That’s an exciting thing.”
Lombard comes from a baseball family — his brother George Jr. is already in professional baseball — and told MLB Network that pedigree has shaped his approach. “There’s a certain way big leaguers carry themselves through failure, through ups,” Lombard said. “When you see a guy that can have a consistent character day in and day out, it’s pretty awesome to see that at such a young age to try to implement that in my game. That’s been huge in my development.”
The pick is not without risk. Lombard had a 39% whiff rate during tracked showcase events in 2025, according to The Athletic’s Keith Law, with pitchers exploiting him with fastballs up in the zone. But his defense at shortstop draws no such questions — he models his game after the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. and brings outstanding athleticism honed through football, soccer and two years of gymnastics.
“Jacob Lombard is somebody that probably we’ve known about for really a couple years as one of the most — if not the most — talented high school players in the class, as much upside as anybody we could have expected [with the] 14th overall pick, and in general, just a really exciting player,” Piliere said. “He’s already very talented and very accomplished in his baseball career. I think it’s only going to blossom from here.”
Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said the organization did not expect Lombard to be available at No. 14. “We didn’t expect that we’d be able to get a player like Jacob Lombard with the pick that we had here,” Bendix said. “He’s an incredible human, comes from an incredible family. Obviously, a local kid and somebody that we couldn’t be more excited to bring into the organization.”
The 14th-overall slot carries a $5.44 million value, and the Marlins will need to lure Lombard away from his University of Miami commitment. Day 2 of the draft continues Sunday with Rounds 5 through 20 beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET.