Yankees Rookie Catcher Deserves More Playing Time

The New York Yankees have consistently been at the forefront of player development, finding overlooked individuals year after year who are placed into advantageous situations where their strengths can be accentuated.

There's a number of relevant examples on the team's roster this season, including Fernando Cruz and Ben Rice just to name a few, but J.C. Escarra's success story might be the unlikeliest of the bunch.

A Baltimore Orioles 15th-round pick out of Florida International in 2017, the organization released Escarra in April 2022 after he played parts of four seasons in their minor league system.

From there, the left-handed hitting catcher toiled away in numerous different independent leagues while also working as an Uber driver and substitute teacher.

The Yankees eventually signed Escarra to a minor league deal that included an invite to big league camp in January 2024, and he proceed to slash .261/.355/.434 with 12 home runs across a combined 125 games between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last season.

The 30-year-old rookie built upon that performance with a standout spring this year, in which he posted a 119 wRC+ and .848 OPS in 56 Grapefruit League plate appearances.

Escarra subsequently beat the odds by cracking New York's Opening Day roster, and he's now blossoming into a contributor for one of the league's best teams.

Over 19 contests and 54 trips to the plate, he's batted .244/.352/.400 with a homer and six RBIs while owning elite walk (13.0%), strikeout (13.0%) and chase rates (19.5%) over that sample size.

Escarra came through in the clutch with the first three-hit game of his career in the Yankees' win over the Colorado Rockies on May 25, first tying things up at 2-2 with a second-inning RBI double before tacking on an insurance run with a run-scoring single in the eighth that made it 5-3.

Though Escarra's shown off his versatility by playing both first and third base this year, his defensive home is behind the plate. In 110 innings there, he's recorded one Defensive Run Saved to go with two Framing Runs, which ranks in the 83rd percentile according to Baseball Savant.

While Austin Wells is an excellent pitch receiver in his own right, evidenced by the fact that he leads the league with five Framing Runs, he's also played over three times as many innings (354 1/3) as Escarra at catcher while underperforming as a hitter with a 94 wRC+ and .709 OPS over 173 plate appearances.

That's not to say that Wells should be removed from the starting role, but perhaps the Yankees should consider getting Escarra into the mix more often.

Regardless of if that happens or not, New York's found yet another unheralded player who's making a real impact on a World Series contender.

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