Continuing The Austin Wells Discussion (and More)

By Dusty Writes

September 23, 2026

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There was an interesting article on mlb.com written by Gerard Gilberto on August 21, 2021 about Yankees prospect Austin Wells. It mentioned how Wells had a sweet swing and had a hit to all fields approach. Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankees VP of domestic amateur scouting believed that Wells " ... was one of the top hit and power combinations in the draft. Aaron Boone said, " He can hit; we really like his swing."

MLB pipeline used the scouting grades of the ( 20-80), with 50 being average, anything higher than 50 is above average, anything less than 50 is below average. MLB pipeline rated Wells as 55 for batting, and 55 for power.

He has been much less than an average offensive player as a Yankee, although he was predicted to be a better than average offensive player. His defense projection was only 45, his arm 40. He was projected to be a below average defensive player.

t seems the scouting reports on Wells as a prospect was completely opposite.  Several times throughout this season, Yankees announcers said the scouting report on Wells was completely opposite. Wells, projected to be a below average defensive player has been an above average defensive catcher according to stats and what the media has been saying. Wells, however, has been a well below average offensive player, completely opposite of his projection as a prospect.

This article said Wells was the number 5 prospect in the Yankees organization, ranked higher than Ben Rice, who was number 13. 

The Yankees drafted Wells in the first round in the 2020 MLB draft. 

Interestingly, in that same draft, the Cubs in the first round had pick number 19 and selected Pete Crow-Armstrong, the probable 2026 NL MVP winner this season. The Yankees had the 28th pick and selected Wells.

It would seem that if Wells was one of the Yankees top prospects, higher than Ben Rice, and was selected in the first round, shouldn't the Yankees and their fans have expected Wells to be a much better offensive player at this point in his career? At this point, if Wells became just an average offensive player in his Yankees career, that would be an amazing improvement.

In his postseason career, Wells has 72 at bats with only 11 hits for a .153 batting average with only 2 homers and 7 rbi.

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I appreciated that recent article on SSTN that highlighted the Yankees incredible inability to find a long-lasting quality 3rd basemen since Alex Rodriguez was the Yankees third basemen.

It's just not third base, however. The Yankees have gone through so many shortstops since Derek Jeter retired.

Also, how many pitchers did the Yankees develop in their system between Andy Pettitte in the early 1990s and Cam Schlittler? There have been very few in that long span.

Many ex-Yankees are doing very well this season. Sonny Gray leads the league in wins with an excellent ERA. He has been on many teams in his career, and had success on all of these teams except the Yankees! 

Ezequiel Duran, who the Yankees traded to acquire Joey Gallo, is having quite a season for the Texas Rangers. He has 17 homers, 83 rbi, batting.264 with an OPS+ of 118. The Rangers also acquired in that trade from the Yankees, Josh Smith, who had 2 seasons  with Texas of OPS+ of 114 and 103.

Michael King, who the Yankees traded in the Juan Soto trade, has become one of the best pitchers in MLB the last 3 seasons. Clay Holmes had two good seasons for the Mets as a starter, after acquiring him from the Yankees. 

Caleb Durbin, who was traded with Nestor Cortes to Milwaukee for Devin Williams has had 2 above average offensive seasons in his first two seasons in MLB, with an OPS+ of 101 and 106. Last season he had 13 homers, and a .255 batting average with 64 rbi. This season, he has 11 homers and 53 rbi and a .256 batting average.

Nathan Eovaldi, has had some good seasons, and while not a star pitcher in the regular season, has been one of the best post season pitchers in MLB, with an incredible post season record and winning 2 world championships.

It would be an interesting project to find how many ex-Yankees have excelled the last few seasons.

In that same article, Paul Semendinger mentioned how the Yankees should be spending more money. I agree, but they need to do much more than just increase their spending.

First, they must spend their money more efficiently, as they waste so much money on players who don't play as well as expected, such as Josh Donaldson, Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton, Jacoby Ellsbury, Joey Gallo, Anthony Rizzo and many more.

The Yankees just fired five of their scouts. One scout, Vic Mata, had been with the Yankees for more than three decades.  The Yankees need to overhaul their scouting department and to improve their player development and minor league instructors, as the Yankees have not been a good fundamental team for quite some time. Remember, the Dodgers scouting report before the 2024 World Series was basically this philosophy: don't strike out, just put the ball in play, and the Yankees defense will make errors and misplays. 

Buck Martinez, Blue Jays announcer, said a season or two ago that despite the Yankees good record, they are not a good team because they do many things poorly. Many NY media and fans also agree the Yankees need to dramatically improve their fundamentals if they are going to win a World Series.

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In a recent article in Baseball Digest, it mentioned how the Dodgers have this fantastic relationship with Japan and have access to the best Japanese players, including having three Japanese starting pitchers.  Up until fairly recently, the article said the people of Japan were wearing more Yankees hats than all the other teams combined. Now however, the vast majority of the baseball hats worn by the people of Japan are Dodgers hats. 

The Yankees, amazingly have no Japanese players on their current roster, that I know of.  With so many great Japanese players in MLB today, how do the Yankees not have a Japanese player on their roster?

Back in the day, the Yankees had great Japanese players such as Hideki Matsui, who had an excellent Yankees career and was the 2009 World Series MVP. The Yankees had Ichiro Suzuki for a short time, a Hall of Famer, the Yankees had other excellent pitchers, Masahiro Tanaka and Hiroki Kuroda. 

The Yankees need to get more active in Japan to acquire Japanese players. Japan seems to be the next big wave of talent. Ohtani winning many MVP Awards and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are just two more examples of great Japanese players who have been key contributors in this current Dodgers dynasty. Yamamoto in the last two seasons has been a fantastic postseason pitcher, including winning 3 games in the 2025 World Series and winning the 2025 World Series MVP.