by The Yankees have built a roster capable of winning the American League East, but every time the catcher’s spot comes up, it feels like they are playing with 8 hitters.
There is struggling offensively, and then there is what the Yankees have received from their catchers in 2026.
Austin Wells, J.C. Escarra and now Ali Sánchez.
Different catcher. Same empty at-bat.
The Yankees have remained competitive because their pitching staff has been excellent and enough players around the lineup have stepped up. But they cannot continue asking the rest of the roster to cover for a position producing almost nothing for months.
Entering the middle of June, Yankees catchers ranked 28th in Major League Baseball with a .527 OPS. They were 29th with a .171 batting average, 25th with a .268 on-base percentage and 28th with a .259 slugging percentage.
Those numbers are already ugly.
Since May 1, they have been even worse.
Yankees catchers have combined to hit .130/.205/.165 with an 8 wRC+ and a 30.7% strikeout rate during that stretch.
An 8 wRC+.
At that point, you are not asking the catcher to carry the offense. You are asking him to occasionally reach first base and give the top of the lineup another chance.
Even that has become too much to expect.
Austin Wells has been one of the Yankees’ biggest disappointments
Austin Wells entered the season as the clear starting catcher and one of the young players the Yankees expected to take another step forward.
Instead, the bat completely disappeared.
Through 47 games, Wells was hitting .166 with 4 home runs, 7 RBI, a .278 on-base percentage and a .255 slugging percentage. His OPS sat at .533 before he landed on the 10-day injured list while dealing with cervical headaches and an illness.
The Yankees will always defend what Wells does behind the plate. They like his pitch framing, especially near the bottom of the strike zone. He draws walks, works well with the pitching staff and has developed into a solid defensive catcher.
Fine.
But a team with World Series expectations cannot act like defense completely erases a .166 batting average and 7 RBI in the middle of June.
Wells hit 21 home runs in 2025. He showed enough power to make the Yankees believe he could become a legitimate offensive catcher. Nobody needed him to hit .300, but there was every reason to expect more than this.
Instead of taking a step forward, Wells has gone backward.
His power has dropped. His run production has vanished, and too many of his at-bats have ended without the pitcher ever feeling threatened.
Maybe the injured-list stint allows him to recover and reset. Maybe he returns and finally begins driving the baseball again.
But Brian Cashman cannot reach the trade deadline with “maybe Wells turns it around” as the entire plan.
J.C. Escarra failed to take advantage of his opportunity
Wells struggling should have opened the door for J.C. Escarra to earn more playing time.
Instead, Escarra gave the Yankees more of the same.
Through 25 games, he was hitting .162 with no home runs, 7 RBI and an OPS below .500. He was optioned and recalled multiple times, but the results never changed.
Escarra received praise for his glove, framing and ability to work with pitchers. That is useful from a backup catcher.
It does not help the lineup when the starting catcher is also hitting below .170.
The Yankees were carrying two left-handed catchers who could not hit. There was no platoon advantage for Aaron Boone to use. There was no right-handed bat to throw at a tough lefty. There was no offensive change of pace at all.
It was simply one struggling catcher replacing another.
Ali Sánchez is a defensive replacement, not the solution
The Yankees promoted Ali Sánchez on June 6 after Wells went on the injured list.
Sánchez at least gives Boone a right-handed option behind the plate, but nobody should confuse batting from the other side with being an offensive upgrade.
He began his Yankees stint without a hit in his first 6 at-bats. At Triple-A, Sánchez hit .227/.327/.375 with 6 home runs in 40 games.
His career Major League numbers are not much better. Sánchez owns a .183 batting average and an OPS around .454 across more than 50 games.
He is known for his defense, throwing arm and receiving ability. The Yankees called him up because they needed somebody capable of handling a Major League pitching staff.
Anything Sánchez provides with the bat is considered a bonus.
That is the problem.
The Yankees already have enough catchers whose offense is treated like a bonus. They need somebody capable of entering the lineup without becoming an automatic out.
The rest of the lineup keeps paying for it
A championship-level offense can survive one weak hitter near the bottom of the order.
The Yankees are being forced to survive several.
Aaron Judge has dealt with an injury. Anthony Volpe has not provided consistent offense. The Yankees have needed Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Paul Goldschmidt to carry more of the load.
Then the catcher comes to the plate with runners on base, and the entire rally feels like it stops.
Yankees fans are not expecting Jorge Posada. They are not asking Cashman to find the best catcher in baseball overnight.
They want somebody who can put together a competitive at-bat.
Move a runner. Drive a ball into the gap. Punish a mistake. Occasionally hit a home run. Give the pitcher a reason to think before throwing another fastball over the plate.
Right now, opposing pitchers have no reason to be careful.
They can attack the strike zone, get ahead and challenge Yankees catchers because the numbers say there is almost no chance they will pay for a mistake.
Ryan Jeffers Credit: Anthony Souffle
Ryan Jeffers would give the Yankees exactly what they are missing
If the Minnesota Twins decide to sell, Ryan Jeffers should be near the top of Cashman’s list.
Before suffering a hamate injury, Jeffers was hitting .295/.408/.541 with 7 home runs and a .949 OPS. He is a right-handed hitter and is scheduled to become a free agent after the 2026 season.
That type of addition would allow Wells to return without immediately being handed every start. Boone could use a real platoon, protect Wells against difficult left-handed pitching and finally get some production from the position.
Adley Rutschman would obviously be the bigger prize, but acquiring him from Baltimore would be extremely difficult and expensive. The Orioles would demand a major prospect package, especially from a division rival.
Other potential options include Hunter Goodman, Christian Vázquez, Shea Langeliers and Dillon Dingler, depending on which clubs become sellers and how aggressive the Yankees are willing to be.
The Yankees do not need Cashman to chase the biggest name just for the sake of making noise.
They need a right-handed catcher who can hit Major League pitching.
Cashman cannot leave this position untouched
The Yankees will probably talk about positive regression. They will mention low batting averages on balls in play, improved health and the possibility of Wells returning to his 2025 form.
Maybe some of that happens.
But the strikeouts are not bad luck. The lack of power is not bad luck. Months of weak contact and dead rallies are not all bad luck.
The Yankees have enough pitching to win a lot of games. They have enough talent to remain in the division race and make a serious postseason run.
But they should not waste that pitching by continuing to run out a catching group with an OPS sitting around .500.
Wells can still be part of the Yankees’ future. He can still return, get healthy and become the hitter the organization believed it had.
He should not be handed the job without competition while the Yankees are trying to win right now.
Cashman has until July 31 to make a move. He should not need that long to recognize what everybody watching this team already sees.
The Yankees’ catching position is an offensive black hole, and it is dragging down a roster good enough to compete for much more.
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