Austin Wells' Offensive Struggles at Plate Are More Than Meets the Eye

Through the first 35 games of the 2026 MLB season, New York Yankees fans have been treated to a rather great offensive showing from Aaron Judge and Ben Rice, who are both crushing it at the plate at a similar rate.

Judge is hitting .272 with 14 home runs, 27 RBI, and a 1.057 OPS. Meanwhile, Rice is slugging .343 with 12 homers, 27 RBI, and a 1.214. Those guys, plus Cody Bellinger and José Caballero, have delivered thus far. However, the same can’t be said for veteran catcher Austin Wells, who is off to a slow start, which is not what the Yankees likely envisioned coming into this season.

Wells was coming off a good performance in the World Baseball Classic with Team Dominican Republic, where he hit .267 with a double, two home runs, five RBI, and had an OPS of 1.086 across five games.

But Wells’ success at the plate in the international tournament hasn’t carried over to the regular season. Ahead of Tuesday night’s series opener against the Texas Rangers, Wells is hitting a dismal .198 with a double, three home runs, five RBI, and a .661 OPS. This is a far cry from this time last year, as Wells slashed .210/.265/.457 with six doubles, a triple, six home runs, and 18 RBI through 31 games.

Austin Wells’ issues at the plate are not one-size-fits-all

Now, the good news for Wells is that he’s picked up at least one hit in three out of his last five contests. However, when we take a look under the hood, it shows us exactly why and where he is struggling.

The first thing that stands out with Wells, who has hit at the seventh, eighth, and ninth spots in the order this season, is his struggles with runners in scoring position.

This season, Wells has not been able to bring guys home, which is surprising considering who is hitting in front of him. The left-handed catcher is slugging a disastrous .133, which is off from his career average (.238).

Last season, Wells was much better with runners in scoring position, hitting. 250. Wells is also not hitting left-handed pitching well this season, which hasn’t been a strength for him during his career (.205). However, the Yankees didn’t expect to see .125, which leads us to looking at the pitches Wells is not seeing well at the plate.

According to Baseball Savant, the four-seamer and slider from southpaws have given Wells a major headache this season.

Four seamer – .125 batting average, 13.0% Whiff, 6.3% Put Away
Slider – .182 batting average, 40.0% Whiff, 33.3% Put Away

But it was a completely different story last season against left-handed pitchers, especially the four-seam fastball. At the same time, he still struggled against sliders.

Four seamer (2025) – .310 batting average, 20.3% Whiff, 19.5% Put Away
Slider (2025) – .148 batting average, 49.2% Whiff, 27.9% Put Away

And staying with the pitch selection department, breaking balls have made life hard for Wells this season, as he’s hitting .125, a notable decrease from 2025 (.221). If you’re an opposing pitcher who knows Wells can and will crush a fastball, the next best thing to get him off his square is by throwing junk at him, which he will swing at.

So, while the simple answer to the veteran catcher’s offensive woes this season is that he can’t buy a hit.

Wells is not turning on the same pitches he found success with in 2025, which is hurting his chances to put runs on the board. New York hopes that his recent stretch will get him on track, as his success is essential to what this team wants to accomplish.

Add us as a preferred source on Google