Let’s be clear up front: this is not just another New York Yankees fan panic attack.
It’s only late May, the Bronx Bombers are cruising atop the AL East with a 7-game lead, and Aaron Judge has basically been putting MVP votes on layaway. But ask anyone sitting in the bleachers or pacing behind the dugout, and they’ll tell you something still feels off behind the plate.
That something has a name — actually, two names: Agustin Ramirez and Carlos Narvaez. And in what’s shaping up to be a potential franchise-altering misjudgment, the Yankees let both walk while betting big on Austin Wells.
The early returns? Not great.
The Yankees made it crystal clear: Austin Wells was their guy. They liked his lefty pop, his leadership intangibles, and the rapport he was building with the pitching staff.
But through nearly two months of 2025, Wells is hitting .206, and 30-year-old rookie and former Uber driver J.C. Escarra has been quietly building up a case to take playing time away from him. Plus, after toying with the idea early in the season of having Wells bat leadoff, Yankees manager Aaron Boone recently bumped him down to the ninth spot in the lineup — a red flag the size of Monument Park.
Agustin Ramirez Makes Headlines for Marlins While Austin Wells Struggles
Meanwhile in Miami, Ramirez – a former top-30 prospect for the Yankees who was part of the package to acquire Jazz Chisholm Jr. last season – has been making headlines.
After debuting for the Marlins on April 21, Ramirez has torched opposing pitching with a slash line of .262/.318/.525. In 122 at bats over 31 games, the 23-year-old is tied for first among NL rookies with 11 doubles and seven home runs, and in a 10-8 win over San Diego on Wednesday, Ramirez enjoyed his first four-hit day, which included a home run and a career-high four RBIs.
“Besides that he hits everything hard, whether it’s on the ground or in the air?” Marlins teammate Connor Norby said of what makes Ramírez so talented. “He’s got an extremely good approach for a 23-year-old, and [an] extremely mature approach. His bat-to-ball [skill] is really good for a guy that has as much power as he does. He doesn’t strike out a ton. He’s got a very fundamentally sound swing.”
Ramirez’s impressive start has MLB analysts wondering if the Yankees traded away a future star. Cristian Crespo of Just Baseball opined that Ramirez “has the chance to become one of the better young catchers in the game today.”
And the pain for Yankees fans isn’t limited to South Beach.
Yankees Fans Pained by Carlos Narvaez’s Success As Austin Wells Regresses
Just up I-95, Narvaez — who the Yankees shipped to Boston in a minor December deal that barely made headlines — has taken over as the Red Sox’s starting catcher and quietly become one of the most valuable rookies in the American League. Narvaez is batting .289 with elite defensive numbers that put him among the best in all of MLB, spurring Boston Herald columnist Mac Cerullo to surmise that the Red Sox “appear to have struck gold,” while Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told MassLive that the organization believes it stumbled upon a foundational piece for many years to come.
“We’re really excited about what Carlos has done, and I think what we believe he’s capable of doing,” Breslow said. “The makeup has been excellent, the investment in the pitching group has been excellent, and so has the performance on both sides of the ball.”
Ouch.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but this isn’t a simple case of prospect roulette. Both Ramirez and Narvaez were right there, developing in the Yankees’ system. Scouts liked Ramirez’s bat more, Narvaez’s glove more, and Wells was supposed to be the balanced option. But what we’re seeing now isn’t balance — it’s regression.
It’s worth wondering: did the Yankees fall in love with Wells’ lefty swing in Yankee Stadium’s short porch and let their internal pipeline evaluations cloud the big picture?
Regardless, the Yankees’ decision to move both Ramirez and Narvaez looks increasingly like a panic move made in the glow of Chisholm’s flash and the hope that Wells would blossom in real time. But while Chisholm has shown flashes, he’s also been dinged up and inconsistent. And while Wells still might turn the corner, there’s no ignoring the optics: the Yankees’ catcher of the present is flailing, while the catchers of their past are thriving — one in Miami, one in Boston.
And as Yankee fans know all too well, watching a former prospect become a star in a Red Sox jersey isn’t just painful — it’s heresy.
The bottom line is that the Yankees had three promising young catchers. They picked one. So far, they picked the wrong one.
Yankees’ Potentially Franchise-Altering Mistake Is Haunting Them Already