Yankees' Catcher Considering Significant Change to Boost Lineup

To say that the New York Yankees lack offensive production from their catchers would be an understatement.

As of May 31, the Yankees' catching tandem of Austin Wells and J.C. Escarra are collectively hitting .184/.280/.279 with four home runs (all by Wells), 18 RBI, a 60 wRC+ and 0.5 fWAR; the latter two metrics rank 27th and 20th in MLB, respectively. The only reason why the WAR value isn't in the negatives is because of solid defense from the duo, particularly in pitch framing.

What hasn't helped the Yankees' catching predicament is the fact that both Wells and Escarra are left-handed batters. While this would seem like a plus with Yankee Stadium being notoriously friendly to left-handed hitters, this is negated by the aforementioned struggles by both and the lack of a platoon advantage for Aaron Boone to utilize. As a result, with the Yankees surely looking to buy once the trade deadline rolls around, a righty-hitting catcher is one of the items on their wish list.

But what if the Yankees can address this problem without getting another catcher? Escarra is looking to do just that by taking up switch-hitting.

J.C. Escarra Experimenting as a Switch-Hitter in Batting Practice

During Saturday's broadcast of the Bronx Bombers' game against the Athletics, Yankees play-by-play announcer Michael Kay revealed that Escarra is trying to become a switch-hitter and has begun taking swings from the right side during batting practice.

"So behind the plate is Escarra, and I had a conversation with him today. He's been working on becoming a switch-hitter," Kay said. "He's been taking batting practice right-handed, and I said, 'How come?' He said, 'Well, I do everything else right-handed. Mechanically, I feel very locked in right-handed, and everybody keeps saying we need a right-handed catcher. Maybe it could be me.'"