Yankees have no choice but to stick with C Austin Wells

Let’s talk about Austin Wells, shall we?

Or, rather, let’s talk about the 6-foot-1, 220 pound pinstripe-clad meat stack resembling Austin Wells. No disrespect intended, but the now third-year player looks truly lost with a bat in his hands. Wells is batting .176 with only four home runs and seven RBI on the year. To add insult to injury, the former first-round pick has more than doubled his BB%, up to 13.7%.

And, in Wells’ defense, it’s not as though he’s making bad decisions every at-bat. On top of the better BB%, his hard contact (Hard%) is up to 37% from 32.7% last season. Wells’ O-Swing%, or percentage of swings outside the strike zone, is roughly the same, down less than one percentage point to 28.9%.

However, Wells’ O-Contact% reveals the true culprit. While his out-of-zone swings are about the same, he’s making way more contact with pitches out of the zone. His O-Contact%, per FanGraphs, is 59.8%. That’s up 7.3 points from last season, and a clean four up from his rookie breakout in 2024.

Add a +4 fielding run value (FRV), and we can now accept the truth now that we’ve identified what’s wrong: The Yankees aren’t moving on from Austin Wells anytime soon. Between the higher GB% and increased O-Contact%, he just needs some time in the cage with hitting coach James Rowson. This is a mechanics problem where Wells just needs to shorten his swing and then get some lift in it.

That’s it. Plain and simple. Between that and his low salary—a shade over $866K according to Spotrac—it’s worth more for the Yankees to ride out the storm with Wells.

Forget J.C. Escarra. He’s 31 years old, not as strong a blocker or pitch framer as Wells, and is likely a trade candidate himself. That is, if teams are even willing to take on an older backup catcher with overall middling skills.

There’s no help coming from the farm system either. The Yankees believed in Wells so much that they traded their two top catching prospects in the last two seasons. Agustin Ramirez was shipped to Miami for Jazz Chisholm Jr. in 2024, and Rafael Flores to Pittsburgh for closer David Bednar in ’25.

Safe to say, the Yankees have thus far won the trade. Ramirez slugged 21 homers as a Marlins rookie last year, but struggled in April this season and was sent to the minors earlier in May. He’s hitting .317 at Triple-A, while Flores is barely batting above .200 at the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis.

If anything, this just means the Yankees might prioritize catching early at the draft in July. The best catching option down in the minors in case of Wells or Escarra getting injured is Ali Sanchez, a career backup with various cups of coffee across four years. Now 29, he’s batting .248 in 34 games for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

So strap in, grit your teeth, and grip the armrest, Yankees fans. Austin Wells is here to stay and all the team can do is hope his swing fixes itself. He’s doing everything else correctly, so maybe the .216 BABIP is just burning him that badly.

At some point, the power has to come back so the Wells Bells may ring again.