{"id":88905,"date":"2025-08-13T07:39:58","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T07:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=88905"},"modified":"2025-08-13T07:39:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T07:39:58","slug":"yankees-have-austin-wells-fix-but-is-aaron-boone-interested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=88905","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Have Austin Wells Fix; But Is Aaron Boone Interested?"},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"post-2042691\"><!--?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ??--><!--?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ??--><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.clutchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Yankees-news-Aaron-Boone-raves-about-Austin-Wells_-improvements-in-spring-training.jpg?w=1200\" alt=\"Hu\u1ea5n luy\u1ec7n vi\u00ean Yankees Aaron Boone ca ng\u1ee3i s\u1ef1 ti\u1ebfn b\u1ed9 c\u1ee7a Austin Wells trong qu\u00e1 tr\u00ecnh hu\u1ea5n luy\u1ec7n m\u00f9a xu\u00e2n\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The New York Yankees have an apparent solution to their Austin Wells problem, but that doesn\u2019t mean manager Aaron Boone will embrace it.<\/p>\n<p>In the words of The Athletic\u2019s Chris Kirschner, \u201cWells has been one of the most disappointing Yankees this season.\u201d Wells entered Tuesday with a .208\/ .267\/ .412\/ .679 slash line for New York in 2025 to go along with 15 home runs and 56 RBIs in 308 at-bats.<\/p>\n<p>Wells has struggled profoundly against off-speed pitches. He owns the worst batting average against sliders (.085) and against sweepers (.045) in Major League Baseball, per Kirschner.<\/p>\n<p>Conveniently for the Yankees, there\u2019s another catcher on the team who mashes: Ben Rice.<\/p>\n<p>Rice is known primarily as a first baseman and designated hitter. Some non-Yankees fans might not be familiar with Rice\u2019s capabilities as a catcher, but those abilities aren\u2019t a mystery inside New York\u2019s clubhouse. Krischner revealed on Tuesday that the Yankees have long been developing Rice as an option at catcher.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cAt the beginning of the season, when Rice was mainly getting at-bats as the Yankees\u2019 designated hitter and first baseman, catching coordinator Tanner Swanson\u00a0said\u00a0he believed Rice could start for at least a third of MLB teams,\u201d Kirschner wrote.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cBehind the scenes, the Yankees were having Rice catch bullpens and slowly working him into lopsided games behind the plate. He\u2019s now showing he could handle a bigger workload.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The most recent evidence: Rice caught Will Warren on Monday in New York\u2019s 7-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>While Rice remains an inferior framer to Wells (possibly only due to fewer reps), Rice is the superior hitter, at least right now. Entering Tuesday, Rice was slashing .235\/ .326\/ .463\/ .789 with 17 home runs and 38 RBIs in 2025 (324 at-bats).<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, Kirschner pointed out something interesting: \u201cThis season, no one in the majors has been more unlucky at the plate based on quality of contact than Ben Rice \u2014 except Juan Soto.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Kirschner argued that giving Rice a larger chunk of starts at catcher would improve the team. However, Kirschner also noted that Boone doesn\u2019t sound high on the idea.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cReducing Wells\u2019 at-bats in favor of Rice could give the Yankees a spark,\u201d Kirschner wrote. \u201cHowever, Boone wasn\u2019t interested in entertaining the possibility of that happening, quickly dismissing a question regarding Rice getting more playing time behind the plate. \u201cI don\u2019t know. We\u2019ll see,\u201d Boone said.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following the current series against the Twins, the Yankees\u2019 upcoming schedule includes home series against the Boston Red Sox (August 21-24) and Washington Nationals (Aug 25-26), and away series against the St. Louis Cardinals (August 15-17), Tampa Bay Rays (August 19-20) and Chicago White Sox (Aug 28-31).<\/p>\n<p>Boone\u2019s every move will be hawked by a Yankees fan base growing increasingly frustrated with his decisions.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>New York entered Tuesday six games back of the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East. The Yankees held the third spot in the wild card with a one-game cushion over the Cleveland Guardians.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Yankees have an in-house solution to help mitigate Austin Wells&#8217; slumping bat, but manager Aaron Boone might not like it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":88909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Yankees Have Austin Wells Fix; But Is Aaron Boone Interested? - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=88905\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yankees Have Austin Wells Fix; But Is Aaron Boone Interested? 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