{"id":737583,"date":"2026-06-28T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T09:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/737583\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T09:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T09:00:16","slug":"yankees-austin-wells-insists-hes-feeling-more-comfortable-at-plate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/737583\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees’ Austin Wells insists he’s feeling more ‘comfortable’ at plate"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 You wouldn\u2019t know it to watch or listen to him now, but the Yankees drafted Austin Wells in the first round largely because of his powerful left-handed bat.<\/p>\n

There were questions both inside and outside the organization about whether Wells would develop enough at catcher to keep him behind the plate.<\/p>\n

Now, the concern is if Wells can hit enough to be a viable option in the lineup.<\/p>\n

The Yankees remain steadfast that Wells will be able to get going offensively, and Wells said, even after another hitless afternoon in a 4-1 loss to the Red Sox<\/a>, he\u2019s pleased with the progress he\u2019s made at the plate since his minor league rehab stint after landing on the IL with cervical headaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was the best and most comfortable I felt in the box so far,\u2019\u2019 Wells said of his post-IL games after still going 0-for-3 and seeing his average plummet to .160.<\/p>\n

\"NewAustin Wells is pictured during the Yankees\u2019 June 5 game. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post<\/p>\n

He noted that he\u2019s been working to get more \u201ctilt\u201d back in his swing after flattening it over the years.<\/p>\n

The goal, he said, was to allow him not to rely on having to make perfect contact in order to get a hit.<\/p>\n

But Wells also noted that as much as it bothers him to fail to produce offensively, as he did Saturday, he\u2019s more concerned with his work with the pitching staff.<\/p>\n

Hitting, Wells said, is \u201cnot a secondary part of my game, but my No. 1 job is to control the pitching staff. If we\u2019re not doing that, it doesn\u2019t matter how many runs or hits I have. We can\u2019t win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s continued to impress the pitchers and coaches with his ability to call games effectively and frame pitches.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I have a huge impact when I\u2019m behind the plate and keeping that the No. 1 focus makes it a lot easier to brush off an at-bat or couple of at-bats,\u2019\u2019 Wells said. \u201cIf I\u2019m 0-for-3 on a day, obviously I\u2019m pissed off about it, but to go out there and get to the eighth or ninth with a zero [from the other team] is the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Boone said he\u2019s seen Wells\u2019 offensive woes get to him \u201cat certain times,\u2019\u2019 but not lately.<\/p>\n

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And he agreed with Wells that he\u2019s at least trending in the right direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel he\u2019s moving the needle right now, believe it or not,\u2019\u2019 Boone said. \u201cHe was really struggling there for a while. I feel he\u2019s gaining traction. The results aren\u2019t there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

There are still those around the Yankees who fear all the information Wells \u2014 and the team\u2019s other catchers \u2014 are tasked with keeping track of has cost him too much at the plate.<\/p>\n

But the Yankees aren\u2019t alone in making catcher a defense-oriented position.<\/p>\n

Still, they need to get more out of Wells than the 2-for-17 he\u2019s been since his return from the IL or the .510 OPS he\u2019ll carry into Sunday, his lowest since mid-April \u2014 especially with so much of the rest of the offense struggling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 You wouldn\u2019t know it to watch or listen to him now, but the Yankees drafted Austin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[1217,5,4,1690,62,2548,2547,185,142],"class_list":["post-737583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-yankees","tag-austin-wells","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkyankees","tag-sports","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116826919868313657","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737583","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=737583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}