Austin Wells Stalls at .198 With 3 Homers, .661 OPS
Austin Wells has opened the 2026 season at.198 through 35 games, and the New York Yankees catcher is carrying just three home runs and a.661 OPS into Tuesday night’s series opener against the Texas Rangers. His start has fallen short of the production the Yankees need from that spot in the order.
Wells at the plate
Wells has hit in the seventh, eighth and ninth spots this season, a sign that the bat has not yet earned steadier placement higher in the lineup. He has at least one hit in three of his last five contests, but the broader line still shows a slow first month-plus.
Through the first 35 games, he has one double, three homers and five RBI. That comes after a stronger 2025 start, when he was at.210/.265/.457 through 31 games with six doubles, one triple, six homers and 18 RBI.
Left-handed pitching
The split work has been sharper than the overall line. Wells is batting.125 against left-handed pitching and slugging.133 with runners in scoring position this season, both numbers well below what the Yankees expected from him coming into the year.
His career average against left-handers is.205, and he hit.250 with runners in scoring position last season. Baseball Savant showed four-seamers and sliders from southpaws have given him a major headache this year, and he is also batting.125 against breaking balls after hitting.221 against them in 2025.
Yankees run production
The problem lands inside a deeper Yankees attack. Aaron Judge has opened the season at.272 with 14 home runs, 27 RBI and a 1.057 OPS through 35 games, while Ben Rice is slugging.343 with 12 homers, 27 RBI and a 1.214 OPS.
Wells’ line looks even more out of place next to that production because he was supposed to add to it, not lag behind it. He had hit.267 with two homers, five RBI and a 1.086 OPS in five games for Team Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic before the MLB season began, but the regular season has not matched that pace.
For the Yankees, the immediate issue is whether Wells can turn the at-bats against left-handed pitching and breaking balls into more damage in run-scoring spots. Until that happens, the catcher’s spot remains one of the quieter parts of a lineup built to score more than this line suggests.
