The Yankees were connected to pretty much every vaguely available catcher last season. The rumblings stemmed from a need to improve an Aaron Judge-less lineup, along with the struggles of the in-house options.
Austin Wells was the key figure in the catching discussions. His brutal first half led the club to entertain finding an upgrade. It didn’t help that there wasn’t a suitable backup. J.C. Escarra was demoted in June. Journeyman Ali Sanchez was little more than a stopgap.
Parsing Wells’ 2026 season will dictate how New York handles the catcher position this offseason. He entered the All-Star break with a .504 OPS. Wells bounced back in a big way over the final two months of the season, slashing .229/.343/.441 with seven homers. He stayed hot in the playoffs, going 5-for-15 with four RBI. Wells trying to stretch a double into a triple in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the ALDS grabbed the headlines. It’s easy to forget that his big swing broke up a no-hitter on a night Drew Rasmussen was virtually untouchable.
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Of course, the tale of two seasons is much more complicated. Wells hit the injured list in early June with what were described as cervical headaches. The backstop took multiple foul tips to the mask early in the season, but passed concussion tests at the time. Persistent headaches eventually landed him on the IL. He returned after two weeks. Wells didn’t immediately get going at the plate, but he clearly performed better after the time off.
“I think you look at the sample of two months there and say, ‘That wasn’t me. That wasn’t who I am,’” Wells told Brendan Kuty of The Athletic.
Kuty highlighted the two foul tips that seemed to be the main concerns. One was on April 23 against the Red Sox, the other on May 9 in Milwaukee. Wells was hitting .175 through 20 games heading into the Boston game. Interestingly, two of his four home runs before the IL stint came in that two-week window between foul tips. These are small samples, and the timeline and impact of this type of injury are almost difficult to pin down.
As Kuty pointed out, Wells was also great behind the plate the whole time. He was worth 3 Fielding Run Value up until the IL stint (401 innings). He was fifth in the league in Statcast’s Framing metric. Wells came off the IL and put up 7 Fielding Run Value the rest of the year (559 innings). He ranked fifth in Framing.
Wells switched to a hockey-style catcher’s mask after the IL stint. He told Kuty he was “definitely going to be more careful and paying closer attention” to his health. He seemed to make it through the rest of the year unscathed, but catching is always going to pose risks.
If the Yankees buy into Wells’ second half, they could go cheaper at backup catcher in free agency. A glove-first option like Austin Hedges (if they could wrestle him away from Cleveland) or old friend Kyle Higashioka would make sense. New York might not even need to look outside the organization. Escarra and Sanchez have both been plus defenders in their brief time in the majors. The offense could stomach the occasion Escarra/Sanchez start if Wells was an above-average bat when he’s in the lineup.
Any doubt surrounding Wells’ performance could lead to a bigger swing. Ryan Jeffers and Tyler Stephenson are at the top of the free agent market. The Yankees had some level of interest in trading for both players this past season. Carson Kelly would be in that tier as well. Then there’s the huge swing via trade for a Hunter Goodman or a Shea Langeliers. There are upgrades of all types available if the Yankees feel that route is necessary.
Photos courtesy of Vincent Carchietta and Tom Horak, Imagn Images
