{"id":121415,"date":"2025-06-21T22:56:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T22:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/121415\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T22:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T22:56:12","slug":"j-c-escarra-emerging-as-yankees-latest-success-story-at-catcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/121415\/","title":{"rendered":"J.C. Escarra emerging as Yankees’ latest success story at catcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are former Yankee catchers thriving in a handful of spots around the league, from Luis Torrens with the Mets to Carlos Narv\u00e1ez in Boston.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Agust\u00edn Ram\u00edrez has shown promise with the Marlins and veteran Jose Trevino is having a resurgent year with the Reds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of those backstops have been dealt in the past year or so by the Yankees, who are now using J.C. Escarra as Austin Wells\u2019 primary backup, with Ben Rice filling in as well now that Giancarlo Stanton is back in the DH spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Escarra impressed again in Saturday\u2019s 9-0 rout of the Orioles in The Bronx<\/a>, as the lefty-swinging catcher not only hit his second homer of the season \u2014 this one into the second deck in right field \u2014 but also guided Clarke Schmidt through seven no-hit innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked which accomplishment he was more excited about, Escarra said, \u201cBoth.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewJ.C. Escarra hits a home run during the Yankees-Orioles game on June 21, 2025. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great day for J.C.,\u201d Aaron Boone said. \u201cHe\u2019s been terrific all season for us behind the plate and we know what kind of hitter he is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Escarra homered off Zach Eflin in the second inning, hit a sacrifice fly in the third, reached on an error in the fifth on a ball smoked at 106 mph that was muffed by second baseman Jackson Holliday, and added an RBI single in the sixth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s capable of that,\u201d Boone said of Escarra\u2019s offense. \u201cHe had good at-bats today \u2026 [and] helped set the tone with the home run.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Wells, Escarra and Rice all hitting from the left side, there\u2019s no perfect way to split playing time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boone, when asked how the team would handle playing time with Rice\u2019s role behind the plate likely increasing, said, \u201cWe\u2019ll see. Keep pushing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Escarra certainly has given the Yankees reason to get him in the lineup, as he was one of a handful of left-handed hitters who made Eflin\u2019s life miserable Saturday, forcing him out of the game after three innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"J.C.J.C. Escarra (L.) talks with Clarke Schmidt during the Yankees-Orioles game on June 21, 2025. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Escarra has proven to be an excellent pitch framer and pitchers entered Saturday with a combined 2.79 ERA with him as their battery-mate this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that was before Schmidt extended his scoreless streak to a career-high 25 \u00b9\/\u2083 innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Escarra said he didn\u2019t notice Schmidt\u2019s no-hit bid until the sixth or seventh inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t look at the [scoreboard] because I was so focused on the game, but you notice things and thoughts creep into your head,\u2019\u2019 Escarra said of Schmidt potentially getting the no-hitter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Schmidt\u2019s pitch count \u2014 103 through seven innings \u2014 prevented any chance of that happening, which was about the only disappointment for Escarra and the Yankees against Baltimore.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are former Yankee catchers thriving in a handful of spots around the league, from Luis Torrens with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,1121,4,1690,62,2548,2547,185,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-121415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-j-c-escarra","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkyankees","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114723827567093627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}