At 84-62, the New York Yankees have a 1 1/2-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles within the AL East with solely 16 video games to play. These two groups will play a three-game collection at Yankee Stadium from Sept. 24-26, so the division race is much from over, however the Yankees are in good place in the meanwhile. Deal with enterprise and the division is theirs.

The Yankees are in first place due to Aaron Decide and Juan Soto, firstly. Decide (217 OPS+) and Soto (179 OPS+) have been the 2 greatest hitters in baseball this season. If you begin your lineup with these two, you are in nice form. It is also helped that younger Luis Gil and (when wholesome) Clarke Schmidt have stabilized the rotation.

One more reason the Yankees are in first place? Austin Wells. The rookie backstop has emerged as a bona fide center of the order power whereas additionally taking part in sturdy protection. On Monday, he clubbed a go-ahead three-run dwelling run towards the Kansas Metropolis Royals and on Wednesday he supplied a game-tying sacrifice fly within the tenth inning, each essential performs in wins.

“I am not impressed as a result of I knew what he is able to,” the just lately promoted Jasson Domínguez mentioned about Wells following Monday’s sport (through NJ.com). “However clearly he is doing nice. I imply, that homer immediately? It was insane.”

For the season, Wells owns a .252/.341/.437 batting line with 13 dwelling runs, far above the .235/.300/.383 MLB common for catchers. He is struck out in solely 20.7% of his plate appearances, higher than the 22.5% league common. Wells has put himself within the Rookie of the 12 months dialog. Right here is the American League rookie WAR leaderboard (per FanGraphs):

1. Austin Wells, Yankees: 3.6 WAR
2. Colton Cowser, Orioles: 3.6 WAR
3. Wilyer Abreu, Purple Sox: 3.0 WAR
4. Luis Gil, Yankees: 2.5 WAR
5. Cade Smith, Guardians: 2.4 WAR

Wells is outhitting Cowser, who owns a .243/.325/.438 slash line, and he is tied him in WAR regardless of having 145 fewer plate appearances. It wasn’t till Jose Trevino suffered a quad pressure on July 12 that Wells was given the chance to be the No. 1 catcher and he is run with it. Since Trevino’s harm, Wells has began 37 of New York’s 50 video games.

“I believe Austin is true on the high. Definitely worthy of it,” Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone mentioned concerning the Rookie of the 12 months race earlier this week. “He is been excellent. He is been such a key cog in our lineup, in the course of the order for the previous few months. Actually coming into his personal as a hitter. And all of the whereas doing it at such a vital place the place I believe he is dealing with himself so effectively behind the plate defensively. If you add what he brings to the desk hitting fourth in our lineup, it has been an exceptional rookie season for him.”

Wells isn’t an out-of-nowhere success story. The 25-year-old was New York’s first-round decide in 2020 and Baseball America ranked him as a top-100 prospect in each 2023 and 2024. He actually has pedigree. Nonetheless, the training curve at catcher is steep, and few rookie catchers step proper into lineup and produce instantly. Once they do, it is a large participant improvement win.

Here’s what you should learn about Wells and his breakout season as he is change into the uncommon under-the-radar Yankee.

His bat has come alive

Wells, a left-handed hitter, and Trevino, a righty, have been in a strict platoon early within the season and Wells didn’t carry out in that function. He hit .196/.338/.294 in April and .204/.292/.306 by means of the tip of Might. Even throughout that sluggish begin, Wells put up spectacular exit velocities and call charges. His season started to show round in early June when he began to drag the ball. Have a look:

Pulling the ball results in nice outcomes typically and that goes double for left-handed hitters in Yankee Stadium. It’s value noting although that Wells has been very productive each at dwelling (.262/.367/.433 with 5 homers) and on the street (.244/.318/.440 with eight homers). He is not merely a product of Yankee Stadium’s quick proper area porch. It helps although, for positive.

For the reason that admittedly arbitrary date of June 6, Wells is slashing .284/.371/.515 with 12 dwelling runs in 241 plate appearances. Set the minimal to 300 plate appearances and Wells ranks eighth amongst catchers in batting common, sixth in on-base share, and eighth in slugging share. He is been one of many 10 greatest hitting catchers within the sport as a rookie. That is spectacular.

He is been nice defending Soto and Decide

For a lot of the season, the Yankees had bother discovering a dependable leadoff hitter and a dependable cleanup hitter to encompass Soto and Decide, who’ve hit 2-3 all yr. Gleyber Torres lastly received his season on observe final month and is working a .407 on-base share since transferring into the leadoff spot on Aug. 16. Soto and Decide lastly have a constant table-setter.

As for the cleanup spot, Wells made his first begin there on July 20, and he has been glorious defending Soto and Decide. Listed below are the numbers:

There isn’t a one the Yankees may put behind Soto and Decide that can change the best way groups pitch to them. Nobody will get Soto and Decide extra fastballs or extra pitches within the zone. For them, the cleanup spot “protects” Soto and Decide simply by driving them in. Decide (.454) and Soto (.418) rank 1-2 in on-base share. Somebody has to get them dwelling. Wells is doing it.

He is dealt with Cole effectively

All through his profession, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole has been a bit explicit about his catchers. Chris Stewart was his private catcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates. With the Houston Astros, it was Martín Maldonado. For a lot for his Yankees profession, it has been Trevino, and when Trevino had season-ending wrist surgical procedure final July, Ben Rortvedt took over and put the ending touches on Cole’s Cy Younger season.

Cole missed the beginning of this season with nerve irritation in his elbow. He made his season debut on June 19 and, positive sufficient, Trevino was behind the plate. Trevino caught 4 of Cole’s first 5 begins earlier than he suffered the quad harm that despatched him to the injured listing on July 12 (Cole began the sport, coincidentally sufficient). At that time Wells, needed to catch Cole, and it is gone very effectively.

Listed below are Cole’s 2024 numbers with Trevino and Wells:

Issues have gone so effectively that Wells, who didn’t catch Cole in a sport for the primary time till spring coaching, has caught three of Cole’s 5 begins since Trevino got here off the injured listing, together with the final two. Trevino is not Cole’s private catcher. Wells has been too good to take out of the lineup and he is additionally acquired the stamp of approval from the reigning Cy Younger winner.

“The extra that I catch him, the extra confidence that I will have,” Wells mentioned about catching Cole again in spring coaching (through MLB.com).  “Enjoying catcher, you want a problem already. So attending to take care of the totally different guys now we have on the workers, I do not suppose anybody’s even near the identical. It is a variety of enjoyable.”

His protection has been higher than anticipated

The guide on Wells arising by means of the minors mentioned he may actually hit, however his protection behind the plate left one thing to be desired. Coming into 2023, Baseball America wrote his “profile is sort of solely pushed by his bat” and “Wells isn’t prone to be a mean defender.” That was the consensus opinion: Wells may hit, however the protection was suspect.

Wells has labored laborious to enhance his protection — “Wells attracts raves for his work ethic and dedication to enchancment,” Baseball America wrote earlier this yr — and now he ranks as one of many sport’s higher defensive catchers. Listed below are his numbers on his glovework this season (minimal 700 innings caught):

Wonderful framing mixed with above-average-ish blocking and throwing equals an excellent catcher. Add within the bat, and Wells is among the greatest all-around backstops within the sport, which was not anticipated not too way back. He regarded like a bat-first participant who would hit sufficient to make up for any protection deficiencies. As an alternative, Wells is performing effectively each at and behind the plate.

“It is a heavy accountability to be an enormous league catcher, not to mention be an enormous league catcher for the New York Yankees,” Boone mentioned earlier this week (through the New York Publish). “He is dealt with all that actually effectively and proven that skill from bounce. Now we have actually seen him begin to change into a power offensively too.”

For the Yankees, Wells successful Rookie of the 12 months can be greater than a participant improvement success story. It might additionally web them a Prospect Promotion Incentive draft decide. These are the additional draft picks given to groups that don’t manipulate the service time of top-100 prospects. If the Yankees get the PPI decide, they will fortunately take it. Extra importantly, they’ve a long-term constructing block on the sport’s most demanding place in Wells.

“He is doing a nice job on either side of the baseball,” Trevino mentioned earlier this week (through the New York Publish). “I believe that is essential, and I believe it is underrated what he is doing proper now, particularly behind the plate. I believe it is going very unnoticed, however it must be undoubtedly definitely worth the dialog of Rookie of the 12 months.”