Ryan Garcia
You can look at the .188/.338/.297 slashline for Austin Wells and believe the Yankees are going to have even more issues with their catching room in 2026.
Early in the season I get far more intruiged by the process that hitters have at the plate instead of just the results, since over the long course of a baseball season these things tend to even themselves out in the luck department.
For Austin Wells, I’m seeing a lot of what I saw in the early stages of 2024; a catcher who is having some really strong at-bats but isn’t always getting rewarded for them.
A patient hitter who is making more contact and should see the SLG% climb as the weather heats up, I’m very happy with what we’ve seen from the homegrown catcher in his third full season.
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Are the Yankees Getting 2024 Austin Wells Back This Season?
A go-ahead home run from Austin Wells yesterday helped spark a Yankees’ win over the Astros, extending their winning streak to eight in a row to put them at 18-9 on the season.
While he has a 102 wRC+ and .701 OPS over that stretch, the way he’s gone about his at-bats have been incredibly exciting compared to what we saw last season.
The Whiff% has decreased by two percentage points while the Chase% has decreased by over three percentage points, and they’ve reflected in his elite strikeout to walk rates.
Among hitters with at least 80 plate appearances, Wells has the 10th-best BB/K in the league, one of just 14 hitters who have more walks drawn than strikeouts.
Austin Wells has a .337 xwOBA and a .292 wOBA on the season; when’s the last time you’ve heard about how he’s getting unlucky and the hard-hit balls aren’t finding grass?
That would be 2024, when he had just two home runs in his first 147 PAs of the season before getting red-hot in the summer time and anchoring the middle of the lineup for a pennant-winning team.
He’s following all of the same patterns; prioritizing plate discipline over just sheer power will keep Wells in every at-bat and it will force pitchers to execute tough pitches in order to get him out.
Wells isn’t just flailing at sliders, he’s spitting on those pitches and passing the baton to help set the top of the offense up for run-scoring opportunities.
As the weather heats up the power and bat speed will come, the outrageously cold conditions have seemed to affect teams such as the Mariners who have had players come out and mention the weather as a reason for bat speed drops.
“It’s like, we’re not trying to swing slower; it’s just cold as (expletive) in Seattle.” – Julio Rodriguez (via The Seattle Times)
Austin Wells staying composed and continuing to work good counts will result in more damage contact as the season goes on.
When you swing at pitches that are hittable and lay off of pitches that you can’t do much with, you’re able to optimize your offensive tools and cut out a lot of the issues that often plague some undisciplined hitters.
This hurt him a ton last season, and I think the commitment to seeing pitches deep and letting his naturally quick hands do the damage is going to change his offensive outlook significantly.
A return to being a 107 wRC+ hitter with the defense that Wells provides from behind the plate would make him seem more like a long-term fixture behind the dish instead of just an above-average regular.
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