Austin Wells’ bat had cooled off some through the first three weeks of September.
His work behind the plate had not.
The Yankees rookie catcher drew rave reviews for his work with Gerrit Cole in Friday’s 10-inning win over the A’s, having a hand in helping the ace cruise through a nine-inning, two-hit gem at the Coliseum.
“He’s been great for us,” Cole said before the Yankees’ 10-0 blowout win over the A’s on Saturday night. “He came in with a good foundation already, and he just gets better and better the more he plays.”
Cole is one of the game’s best at reading hitters’ swings and adjusting his plan of attack from there.
Veteran catcher Jose Trevino is also adept at the skill, which is part of why that battery has had so much success together.
But Wells, who did not play in Saturday’s win, has come into his own in that regard, an important development with his bat being so important to the Yankees lineup as their regular cleanup hitter.
“I think he was pretty talented at it,” Cole said. “But look, we’re trying to turn the lineup over four times. So the communication is important. I made an effort to up that, to make sure we’re on the same page with pitches and we got multiple opinions on what we’re seeing. Just makes it that much easier when you know the pitching coach and the catcher, everybody’s convicted we’re throwing this pitch, and that gives you the best chance to execute, whether you’re right or not.”
Almost every time Friday night, they were right, as Cole allowed just two singles and a walk across an efficient 99-pitch outing, his best of the year.
“I thought they were excellent,” manager Aaron Boone said, “because I think a lot of what they did, they made some good adjustments in-game, reading swings.”
Boone pointed to a key at-bat in the bottom of the ninth inning, with the score tied 1-1, as an example. Lawrence Butler took a big hack at a 1-0 fastball at the top of the zone and fouled it off, which Cole followed with a pair of changeups — he only threw five of them all night — to get Butler whiffing for his seventh strikeout.
“Gerrit did an outstanding job communicating with me what he was feeling and that allowed me to go out there and try to give him the best opportunity to have success,” Wells said.
Cole demands a lot from his catchers — for good reason — and Wells has met those expectations.
He did not catch the Cy Young winner at all last September in his first taste of the big leagues, but Friday marked their ninth game together, with Cole pitching to a 3.19 ERA in those starts.
While game-calling is difficult to measure, Wells grades out as the third-best pitch-framer in the majors (with 11 Catcher Framing Runs, per Baseball Savant) and third among catchers in Fielding Run Value, which combines blocking, framing and throwing.
At the plate, Wells has consistently been one of the best Yankees throughout the season, though he has been mostly quiet to start September.
In his last 15 games entering Saturday, he was 7-for-52 (.135) with a .438 OPS, 19 strikeouts and one home run — a big one at that, crushing a memorable go-ahead grand slam against the Royals.
But even when Wells goes through a stretch like this offensively, he has still been able to impact the game from behind the plate.
“You better be if you want to be a catcher in this league,” Boone said. “If you want to be a winning catcher, a championship-caliber catcher, job one’s behind that plate. So yeah, he’s got all that, he’s ready for that, and he’s handled all that.”