TAMPA – Manager Aaron Boone says he can imagine the “number” of in-house hitters who will become the Yankees' lead hitter this year.
On Friday, Austin Wells received the first crack in his first blow and counted it.
With the untraditional option to emerge as the first batter, Wells only needed two pitches to claim to feel comfortable on the spot.
In the first batting of the order, the young catcher golfed a 1-0 first ball from Jake Bros on the right field wall for the first home run of the spring, 6-3 victory over the Blue Jays at Stein Brenner Field on Friday.
“I never really led in my life,” Wells said after the 2-2 night. “It was fun doing that today.”
Boone has many leadoff options (partly because there's no solid fit after walking at the free agency).
Aaron Judge is locked up as the second batter, with Cordy Bellinger as a front runner who hits third, and he hits on Friday and adds his own first home run.
Last season, Wells was most frequently used as a clean-up hitter, allowing him to jump from judges' protection (after the judge came third in 2024) to the judge's table setter.
The slow-footed well is not a vision of the man's throwback vision of the leadoff guy and doesn't steal much of the base, but he can fight through the batting, have plenty of knowledge about the strike zone and, most importantly, ride the base.
“We'll never know here,” Boone said of Leadoff Wells. “That's what I think. I liked jazz. [Chisholm Jr.] There.
“I absolutely could see it being things, especially with right-handed pitching.”
Throughout 94 games last season, Wells posted a strong .348 on base percentage that he saw as he climbed from the bottom of the lineup into the middle of the lineup.
The rookie at the time exhausted stretching in his first full season as a major league catcher, and his OBP was just .217 in September when he played almost every day.
If a well of better rest and performance arrived this season, he could win daily leadoff jobs and play a role against the rights of the opposite.
Chisholm, Switching Jasson Domínguez, and perhaps Bellinger were able to play that role too.
There is a world where right-wing Anthony Volpe or dj lemahieu (if he undoes the clock) appears to hit first against left-handed people as Boone picks a platoon above the lineup.
“It doesn't matter where I am,” Wells said.
