Austin Wells’ first-half collapse had to feel like it needed an explanation, because the numbers got ugly in a hurry. Now there’s one.
After the Yankees catcher limped through a brutal stretch at the plate and then landed on the injured list on June 6 with what the club called “cervical headaches,” Wells told Brendan Kuty that the problem started with a pair of foul tips to the mask - one on April 23 at Fenway Park and another two weeks later at American Family Field in Milwaukee, both with Cam Schlittler on the mound. Wells said the hits left him dealing with pressure in his head and headaches, even though he passed concussion tests and didn’t initially think much of it.
“I believe that the culmination of multiple blows to the head definitely had something going on."
The timing lines up with the slide. Wells opened the year with a .200 average and .688 OPS in March and April, then cratered to .154/.436 in May before June turned into a .061/.152 nightmare, complete with zero walks. For a player expected to keep building on his bat in his third full season, it was a stunning nosedive.
And yet the story didn’t end there. Wells came back and, after a rough July that looked a lot like the early-season version of himself, he found his footing.
His OPS climbed over .700 in August and then over .800 in September. For the second half, he finished with a .229 average, a .351 OBP and a .787 OPS, while continuing to handle the Yankees’ pitching staff well.
Even in the playoffs, aside from a baserunning mistake on the national stage in the ALDS, he looked like a step forward.
That’s why the Yankees have little reason to look elsewhere behind the plate. Wells has become too important to how the staff functions, and his defense has already changed the way he’s viewed inside the organization, enough to earn Gold Glove finalist recognition this year after beginning his time in the system with a shaky defensive reputation.
The real issue now is making sure he has the right support around him. The Yankees need a proper right-handed backup for Wells, because what they’ve gotten from the left-handed side hasn’t been enough. In 99 plate appearances against left-handed pitching, Wells hit .122.
Nobody should bank on him suddenly solving lefties. But after the way he finished, and now that the reason for the early swoon is out in the open, there’s a lot more reason to believe in his bat than there was in June.
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