Yum Check Available Package Updates

This command won't focus specifically on one package, but by using a regex to do the matching you can still see what's available:

$ yum list available java\*
java-1.4.2-gcj-compat.i386                                                   1.4.2.0-40jpp.115                                                      installed
java-1.6.0-openjdk.i386                                                      1:1.6.0.0-1.36.1.11.9.el5_9                                            installed
Available Packages
java-1.4.2-gcj-compat-devel.i386                                             1.4.2.0-40jpp.115                                                      base     
java-1.4.2-gcj-compat-javadoc.i386                                           1.4.2.0-40jpp.115                                                      base     
java-1.4.2-gcj-compat-src.i386                                               1.4.2.0-40jpp.115                                                      base     
java-1.6.0-openjdk.i386                                                      1:1.6.0.0-1.40.1.11.11.el5_9                                           updates  
java-1.6.0-openjdk-demo.i386                                                 1:1.6.0.0-1.40.1.11.11.el5_9

You can make it "smarter" by filtering the output using grep.

To see currently installed package version + check what is the latest available version, use --showduplicates list <package name>, for example:

$ sudo yum --showduplicates list 'tar.*'

Loaded plugins: search-disabled-repos
Installed Packages
tar.x86_64   2:1.26-32.el7    installed              
Available Packages
tar.x86_64   2:1.26-29.el7    rhelosp-rhel-7.4-server
tar.x86_64   2:1.26-31.el7    rhelosp-rhel-7.4-server
tar.x86_64   2:1.26-32.el7    rhelosp-rhel-7.4-server