Yankees' Austin Wells now earning plaudits for his defense (and he bats cleanup, too)

The questions about his defense accompanied rookie catcher Austin Wells long before the Yankees took him with the 28th overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, and they never stopped.

Well, until about the midpoint of this year.

“The guy’s worked his butt off and was committed to silence the doubters about him becoming a major-league catcher,” Yankees director of amateur scouting Damon Oppenheimer, who has overseen the draft for the team since 2005, said by phone Monday afternoon. “He’s become a really accomplished receiver, a good pitch framer, the arm strength is more consistent. It’s the whole package. It’s not just one thing. Every area he needed to improve in, he has.”

And it’s not only the Yankees who feel that way about Wells, who went 1-for-3 with two walks and two RBIs in Saturday night’s 6-5 victory over the Royals in  ALDS Game 1 and who again was behind the plate and batting cleanup in Monday night’s Game 2.

Royals catcher Salvador Perez — a nine-time All-Star, a  five-time Gold Glove winner, the MVP of the 2015 World Series and all but a lock to be inducted into the Hall of Fame after his career is over  — has been impressed with the little he’s seen of Wells.

“I think he's going to be a good catcher in the future,” Perez said Monday. “The way he frames it, too, that's pretty good.”

Perez smiled.

“And he's fourth in that lineup,” he said. “Makes me think he's going to be good.”

Wells, who met Perez briefly in 2023 shortly after his Sept. 1 call-up during a series against the Royals, broke into a smile when told of the veteran catcher’s comments.

“It's amazing. He was one of the guys that I watched growing up,” said Wells, 25. “He's a pretty electric catcher and has done a lot of great things in the game. To hear that, it's pretty cool. He's a great guy. Always has been. That's great.”

Wells  said Perez, 34, “was definitely one of the guys I watched as a kid coming into the league.”

“For him to be out there on the other side doing what he's doing and having a great year, it's pretty cool to be going against him,” Wells said. “Just to have a guy like that who's caught for so long in the league, I feel like it's becoming more and more rare [in] the game. It's really cool to see him over there.”

Wells heard all the familiar questions about his defense upon reaching the big leagues in September 2023 but immediately impressed Yankees pitchers with his work behind the plate.

Though Wells was seen as an offense-first catcher not just from his days at the University of Arizona but going back to his high school days at Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, his defensive growth hasn’t surprised Oppenheimer.

“You saw the intangibles and [work ethic] in high school,” Oppenheimer said.

So much so that the Yankees actually took Wells in the 35th round of the 2018 draft out of Bishop Gorman. He did not sign, choosing to fulfill his commitment to Arizona.

It was at Arizona where Wells’ bat really blossomed — shooting him up pretty much every team's draft board — and when the 2020 draft rolled around, the Yankees pounced, this time in the first round.

Shortly after that year’s draft, Oppenheimer didn’t hesitate to express his belief that Wells would catch in the big leagues.

“There’s a lot of ceiling for growth [defensively] because his mental side is so strong, and he’s a good athlete,” Oppenheimer said then.

Now Well has deposed Jose Trevino as the club’s everyday catcher, has become entrenched as the  cleanup hitter and is likely to start however many playoff games the Yankees have left in this postseason.

“It's exciting. It's an honor,” Wells said of his status. “I try not to think too much about it, though. Just feel like I'm in a spot to do a job.”

Schmidt in Game 3

Before Monday’s game, manager Aaron Boone said Clarke Schmidt will start Wednesday night’s Game 3 in Kansas City. Schmidt was chosen over the hard-throwing Luis Gil, who, like Wells, is a Rookie of the Year candidate. “I feel like he was throwing the ball, toward the end, as well as he was to start the season and what I feel like was one of the better pitchers in the league,” Boone said of Schmidt. “That’s where I feel he was at.”

Schmidt, who finished the season 5-5 with a 2.85 ERA in 16 starts, missed three months with a lat strain suffered at the end of May. At the time of the injury, he was 5-3 with a 2.52 ERA in 11 starts. Gil, who could be used in a variety of roles out of the bullpen, went 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA in 29 starts.