Sign up here to get Inside the Yankees delivered to your inbox each Friday morning.
Austin Wells’ long-term future behind the plate has been in question since the Yankees took the 6-foot-2 catcher with the 28th overall pick out of the University of Arizona in the 2020 amateur draft.
His left-handed swing has always impressed. That was the case in college, where he hit .357 over two seasons. It was the case through the 23-year-old’s first professional season this past summer, when he hit 16 homers and drove in 76 runs in 103 games. And it remains so in the Arizona Fall League, where Wells has an OPS of .979 through 11 games with the Surprise Saguaros.
And while the belief around baseball is that Wells’ defensive deficiencies at catcher, where he doesn’t have a strong arm and needs work on pitch-framing, make him a better fit elsewhere on the diamond, the Yankees — and Wells — haven’t abandoned the idea.
