The New York Yankees have cultivated a reputation for developing catchers, and Austin Wells is on his way to becoming their biggest success story at the position since Jorge Posada.
Following a 71-game career at the University of Arizona, where he slashed .357/.476/.560 with seven home runs and 74 RBIs, the Yankees selected Wells in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft at No. 28 overall.
After choosing not to sign with New York when it selected him out of high school in the 35th round of the 2018 draft, Wells wrote his name on the dotted line after agreeing to a $2.5 million bonus the second time around and played in his initial minor league games for the organization in 2021.
He posted an .867 OPS with 16 home runs in 103 games between Low-A Tampa and High-A Hudson Valley that season. MLB Pipeline subsequently rated Wells as the No. 96 prospect in baseball ahead of the 2022 campaign, and he’d go on to log an .897 OPS with 20 homers between Tampa, Hudson Valley and Double-A Somerset.
Baseball America later tabbed Wells as the league’s No. 94 farmhand leading into 2023, and he’d make his major league debut for the Yankees on Sept. 1 of that year. With the club out of the playoff race, he slashed .229/.257/.486 to go alongside four homers in 19 games and 75 plate appearances.
Wells earned a lion’s share of the playing time over veteran Jose Trevino during the 2024 season, and he didn’t disappoint. Across 115 contests and 414 trips to the plate, he’d bat .229/.322/.395 with 13 homers while posting the third-most Framing Runs and tying for the sixth-most Defensive Runs Saved of any catcher in the league with 12 and 11, respectively.
After recording an OPS of .724 and .714 in March/April and May this year, respectively, Wells has turned it up a notch so far in June with a slash line of .348/.423/.696. He broke the game open against the Kansas City Royals in Tuesday’s series opener, launching a three-run homer in the fourth inning that put the Yankees up 5-1 en route to what was ultimately a 10-2 victory.
Wells’ defense has remained elite as well with four Framing Runs, which places him in a tie with Detroit Tigers backstop Dillon Dingler for the fifth-most across baseball. Furthermore, his 11 home runs are the third-most among all catchers while his 1.8 fWAR ranks seventh.
The 25-year-old has played a major factor in the prosperity of both the Yankees’ pitching staff and offense this season while simultaneously establishing himself as one of the best catchers in the league.
