EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsNEW YORK -- For the second time in less than 24 hours, the Yankees made an unexpected move at catcher when Austin Wells was placed on the injured list with cervical headaches before the team took the field Saturday against the Boston Red Sox.J.C. Escarra was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to replace Wells on the roster. The Yankees had optioned Escarra late Friday night, choosing to swap him out for Ali Snchez.Manager Aaron Boone did not indicate Wells was dealing with the issue while speaking to reporters about the club's catching situation Saturday afternoon. He said he planned to give Wells, a left-handed batter, days off against left-handed pitchers "in the short term" with Snchez, a right-handed hitter, in the fold.Snchez was scheduled to start Saturday against Red Sox left-hander Ranger Suarez and become the team's first right-handed hitter to start at the position since the 2024 World Series, but the game was postponed due to weather and will be made up as a split doubleheader on Aug. 29."Hopefully Ali can come up here and provide a little bit of a spark and a different look, too," Boone said.Wells has been one of the least productive hitters in the majors this season. Entering Saturday, his .533 OPS ranked 212th out of 217 players with at least 160 plate appearances. Wells or Escarra had started the Yankees' 64 games this season, combining to give the Yankees a .527 OPS from the catching position. Only the Philadelphia Phillies have a lower output from their catchers.Boone did not close the door on Ben Rice, the Yankees' best hitter this season, getting starts at catcher this season before adding "it's not on the board right now." The 27-year-old Rice was drafted and developed as a catcher, but he has primarily split his time between first base -- a position he had never played -- and designated hitter since breaking into the majors in 2024. He started 26 games behind the plate last season. He has yet to log an inning at catcher in 2026.With Aaron Judge out for an extended period, having Rice catch would give the Yankees the flexibility to keep both Paul Goldschmidt and Giancarlo Stanton in the lineup when Stanton returns from injury. Stanton has been on the injured list since late April with a calf strain. He hit again on the field at Yankee Stadium on Saturday and is entering his second week of running. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman on Friday said Stanton could return in two to three weeks.Last season, after logging innings late in blowouts, Rice was given his first major league start at catcher on June 18. Boone said that would be more difficult to pull off this season because of Rice's importance to the offense, recently amplified by Judge landing on the injured list with a stress fracture in his ribs.Boone said there's a "concern" that catching regularly could tire Rice and affect his offensive production, but he believes Rice could remain in the lineup every day if he occasionally added catching to his responsibilities."Do we want to do that with what he means to, obviously, the middle of our lineup?" Boone said. "So, we'll continue to evaluate that and ultimately decide if the risk is worth that, or if we think it's worth it."Rice batted .221 with six home runs and an .879 OPS in 114 plate appearances as a catcher last season. He hit .263 with 20 home runs and an .825 OPS in his other 416 plate appearances. This year, Rice has emerged as an early American League MVP candidate, ranking second in the majors in OPS entering Saturday while batting .305 with 18 home runs.
