{"id":827744,"date":"2026-10-12T18:15:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T18:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/827744\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T18:15:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T18:15:25","slug":"the-yankees-need-change-at-catcher-how-much-depends-on-big-austin-wells-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/827744\/","title":{"rendered":"The Yankees need change at catcher \u2014 how much depends on big Austin Wells question"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We are beginning a multi-part series about how the Yankees should handle each position this offseason, beginning with this behind the plate question:<\/p>\n<p>Who is the real Austin Wells?<\/p>\n<p>In the first half, he was among the worst regularly used offensive players in the majors with a .155\/.247\/.258 slash line for a 42 OPS-plus in 220 plate appearances.<\/p>\n<p>In the second half, he was .229\/.351\/.436 for a 120 OPS-plus in 168 plate appearances, and carried that into the postseason, when he was among the few Yankees who hit well in both rounds, going 5-for-17 with four walks. Do not dismiss the walks \u2014 when Wells draws them and\/or works in more positive counts, he is just a better hitter. His 14.3 walk percentage in the second half was tied for 12th in the majors (minimum 150 plate appearances).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are beginning a multi-part series about how the Yankees should handle each position this offseason, beginning with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[1217,5,4,2046,37650,62,185,430,428],"class_list":["post-827744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-austin-wells","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-mlb-hot-stove","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-sports-plus"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117429306905363207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827744","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=827744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}