Austin Wells gave the Yankees something they badly needed this weekend: a little breathing room.
He went deep Thursday night, then did it again Friday, and for a catcher who had homered only once since May 22, the two blasts looked like a reset. They also arrived at exactly the right time for a front office that may be looking for any reason to stand still before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
That’s the tension hanging over the Yankees right now. Catcher has been their worst position on a contender, and Wells’ season has been rough enough to make almost any upgrade look attractive. But a hot couple of games can change the mood, and in this case they may be giving Brian Cashman cover.
The numbers underneath the weekend are still ugly. Wells entered it hitting around .150 with four homers, 10 RBIs and an OPS under .500 in roughly 190 plate appearances. His 42 wRC+ sat among the four worst marks in baseball.
The broader Yankees picture at the position is even harsher. No Yankees player has posted a lower OPS in a season of at least 175 at-bats since Jim Mason’s .445 mark in 1976. Only a few players in team history have carried an average that low through 185 plate appearances, including Joey Gallo and Dick Howser.
As a group, Yankees catchers were last among all 30 teams in wRC+ and dead last in slugging when the week began. That kind of production would normally push a contender toward action, especially with the deadline so close.
Cashman has acknowledged the issue. Before the series finale in Tampa Bay, he called the catching situation a problem, and reporting from MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand this month pointed to a front office expected to go after bullpen help while treating catcher differently.
“Brian Cashman called his catching situation an issue, clearly,” The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner reported.
Feinsand drew the line even more plainly.
“Catcher is a different situation,” Feinsand wrote.
There are reasons for that approach. Cashman has been wary of bringing in a new everyday catcher in the middle of a season, especially when the pitching staff has largely been the team’s backbone. Wells is considered an above-average framer, the pitchers are comfortable with him, and the Yankees have also thinned their catching depth by moving prospects in recent years.
That’s what makes the timing of Wells’ surge so useful for the Yankees. It gives the front office something to point to if it wants to avoid a move. It lets them say the incumbent is heating up right when the deadline pressure is rising.
But two home runs in two games don’t erase a season this bad. One of them was a ninth-inning insurance shot in the Yankees’ 5-3 win over Washington, and neither swing changes the fact that Wells has spent most of the year near the bottom of the league in every meaningful offensive category.
The market only adds to the temptation to wait. Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers has been viewed as the best right-handed-hitting catcher likely to be available.
He was hitting .295 with a .949 OPS before a hamate fracture ended his first half, and he has started a rehab assignment. Still, the Twins are near a wild-card spot and may not sell, which would leave the Yankees with fewer appealing options behind him.
That’s the danger for New York: a weak market, a reluctant buyer, and a catcher who just happened to catch fire at the perfect moment. Wells may have made it easier for the Yankees to talk themselves out of a deal.
Aaron Boone has continued to defend him, pointing to what the staff sees beyond the numbers.
“If he does that, the results will follow,” Boone said of Wells’ improving swing positions.
There is logic in that stance. If the pitchers trust Wells and the framing matters enough, then keeping him in place has value.
But the Yankees are four games back in the AL East, have spent weeks near the bottom of the majors in scoring, and have played without Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. They can’t afford to give away offense if there’s a real fix available.
So the weekend did not solve anything. It just made the easiest path look more appealing.
The Yankees know the catching spot is a problem. The question now is whether Wells’ two-homer burst gives them enough comfort to leave it alone.
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