They say that the World Baseball Classic can be a blessing for a hitter. An earlier ramp-up and encounters with high-level pitching weeks before the beginning of the regular season has may positively affect hitter performance, with a study by RotoWire finding that, on average, hitters who played in the WBC played better in April and May than hitters who didn’t.
That’s an important note for a Yankees team that sent a few hitters to the WBC, including catcher Austin Wells, who is representing his mother’s side of the family as the starting backstop for the Dominican Republic. He crushed a home run in the team’s blowout win over the Netherlands, and the early ramp-up could be big for the young catcher who is entering a crucial season.
2025 statistics: 126 games, 448 PA, .219/.275/.436, 21 HR, 71 RBI, 94 wRC+, 6.7 BB%, 26.3 K%, 11 Fielding Run Value, 3.0 fWAR
2026 FanGraphs Depth Charts projections: 117 games, 461 PA, .227/.299/.417, 19 HR, 62 RBI, 99 wRC+, 8.5 BB%, 24.4 K%, 3.2 fWAR
Wells emerged on the scene in September 2023 as that year’s depressing edition of the Yankees wound down its season. He showed good potential with the bat, as expected, but also looked surprisingly comfortable behind the plate. It may be hard to imagine right now, but we have to remember that Wells was considered a great bat in the minors who might not be able to stick behind the plate.
Tanner Swanson worked his magic, though, and defense became Wells’ strength. He had a strong rookie year in 2024 that saw him finish third in Rookie of the Year voting, even with a brutal September slump. Heading into 2025, the hype around Wells was palpable, so much so that he went deep as the team’s leadoff hitter on Opening Day.
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But his offense just wasn’t the same in 2025. His plate discipline regressed, and his on-base percentage dropped from .322 to .275. His already sub-standard numbers against offspeed and breaking pitches got even worse, as he often looked lost against sliders and sweepers. His framing remained elite, but with ABS coming in 2026, he could see that framing value start to be chipped away.
The one positive of his offensive profile in 2025? Wells cut down his groundball rate, generated a better pulled fly ball rate, and got more barrels. The downside, however, of looking to lift the ball is getting under it, which he also did considerably more.
For Wells, the path to getting back to being the offensive catcher he was billed to be in the minor leagues is plate discipline. His strikeout rate spiked from 21 percent to 26.3 percent in 2025, while his walk rate collapsed. His 2024 percentiles are where he wants to get back to, where he was in the 89th percentile in walk rate and 70th percentile in chase rate. Both were below average in 2025.
He’s never going to be a perfectly well-rounded hitter, so it’s hard to ask him to abandon his approach of looking to hit the ball in the air to the pull side when he’s a lefty at Yankee Stadium, but if it’s leading to the hole in his swing, it might need to be considered. It should not, however, affect his swing decisions.
Defensively, Wells will continue to be one of the league’s best, but the question will be how much ABS will impact his framing impact. With the limit on challenges, he should be fine, but he also needs to be able to steal calls for his pitchers when umpires miss calls. He’s been a mixed bag in a small sample in spring training in that regard.
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Still, his defensive impact makes him, at worst, a league-average catcher. His bat, while underwhelming, was average among backstops in 2025, and he’s shown he has enough thump to be better. As a result, he’s not at risk of losing his job. JC Escarra is a fine, defense-first backup, and Ben Rice is likely the team’s everyday first baseman. If Wells struggles, he could lose reps, but he’ll almost certainly catch a majority of games in 2025 barring injury.
Ultimately, there’s a path to Wells getting back on track to being one of the best young catchers in baseball, and in the ultimate irony for those who’ve followed his career since he was drafted out of Arizona in 2020, it’s his bat that’s the swing factor.
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