Yankees expect Austin Wells to be back after hopeful reset

Gary Phillips, New York Daily News on Jun 20, 2026

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — It sounds like Austin Wells will be back in the majors on Sunday.

Aaron Boone said Saturday that the catcher, who has been on a rehab assignment after battling cervical headaches, will “probably” rejoin the Yankees on Father’s Day. The manager added that it’s “likely” the lefty-swinging Wells will be in the lineup against right-handed Reds phenom Chase Burns.

Wells had plans to work out with the RailRiders, the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, on Saturday before making his way to the Bronx.

Wells has been working closely with Jarret DeHart, the Yankees’ director of hitting, since his rehab assignment began. Boone didn’t want to detail that work, but Wells has had some success during his rehab games.

He’s only hit .167 over three games, but his two hits were home runs, which both came on Thursday.

Prior to going on the injured list, Wells had been one of the worst hitters in baseball this season. He only had four homers and seven RBI, as well as a .166 average and a .533 OPS.

But with the talented defender symptom-free for the last week or so, the Yankees are hoping that this time away can serve as a reset.

“He’s doing well physically,” Boone recently said. “He’s got offensive ability, and he’s certainly better than he’s been the first couple months.”

With Wells expected back, the Yankees will have to demote one of their incumbent catchers.

Before Wells disclosed his headaches to the team, the Yankees promoted Ali Sánchez, a right-handed hitter, and demoted J.C. Escarra, another left-handed hitter. However, they had to recall Escarra less than 24 hours later with Wells needing an IL stint.

Escarra, better acquainted with the big league pitching staff, was hitting just .179 with a .493 OPS before going 1 for 1 in Saturday’s game against Cincinnati, a 10-2 loss that featured lackluster performances from the Yankees’ offense and defense, as well as Will Warren. Sánchez has had some relative success since making his Yankees debut; he’s hitting .313 with a .728 OPS after getting the start against the left-handed Andrew Abbott on Sunday.

But neither Escarra nor Sánchez have had much offensive success in the majors, and Wells has been a major question mark at the plate dating back to last season.

With that in mind, the Yankees will search for a more established right-handed hitting catcher — someone who could at least platoon with Wells — prior to the trade deadline on Aug. 3.

No derby invite for Rice ... yet

Ben Rice has made it known that he would like to participate in the Home Run Derby next month, but no such invite has been extended just yet. With the event still a few weeks away, a league source said it’s too early for that.

Rice, one of the best hitters in the majors this year, entered Saturday with 21 homers, tied for the fourth-most in the majors. His 1.005 OPS was second only to Houston’s Yordan Alvarez (1.065).

While Rice is a shoo-in for All-Star festivities in Philadelphia in mid-July, there’s a chance he doesn’t start at first base for the American League. That’s because the first round of fan voting, released earlier this week, had Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. leading by nearly 100,000 votes.

Guerrero hasn’t been nearly as productive as Rice, hitting .276 average with four homers and .731 OPS prior to Saturday.

Injured arms

Max Fried (bone bruise) threw his second full bullpen on Friday. Pitching coach Matt Blake said that he tossed threw about 28 pitches. Blake believes Fried will face live hitters “pretty soon,” as in the next few weeks.

Blake also said that Clarke Schmidt (Tommy John surgery) is “a couple weeks” away from throwing to live hitters. He threw a bullpen on Saturday.

Finally, Boone said that Luis Gil (shoulder inflammation), optioned to Triple-A earlier this season, started throwing last weekend.

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