BALTIMORE — As Austin Wells rounded the bases on Tuesday night, he threw his right arm into the air in celebration.
His first home run of the season had just tied the Yankees and Orioles at one in the third inning, and so the catcher made a few more celebratory gestures after crushing a Dean Kremer fastball 414 feet at 102.6 mph.
However, the Yankees lost the game, 4-2. Afterward, Wells wasn’t as excited about the longball.
“It’s great,” he said of the homer, “but I would trade them all for a win.”
Austin Wells jumps on the first pitch of the inning to tie the game! pic.twitter.com/C9xqqeUP2A
— MLB (@MLB) April 30, 2024
It’s understandable that Wells wouldn’t relish his personal success following a loss. But as his home run trot suggested, finally hitting a ball out had to feel good for a hitter who hasn’t caught many breaks this season.
After going 2-for-3 on Tuesday, Wells woke up with a .196/.338/.294 slash line. Aside from the on-base percentage, those are not good numbers after 19 games.
However, the Yankees have maintained that Wells has been having strong at-bats since the season began. Advanced metrics support that.
According to Baseball Savant, Wells was second on the Yankees in expected batting average (.283), expected slugging percentage (.530) and xwOBA (.412), a stat that measures one’s quality of contact.
Juan Soto (.316/.632/.453) led the team in all three of those categories. So Wells has clearly been doing something right.
Wells was also first on the team in Sweet Spot% (43.2) and third in Barrell% (13.6). But his .209 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) easily ranked last among all Yankees regulars.
Simply put, the 24-year-old rookie has been unlucky while making strong contact.
“He’s been one of those guys that it hasn’t really bounced his way offensively so far this year,” Aaron Boone said Tuesday. “His numbers don’t match up to how he’s actually hit the ball.”
But Wells’ luck has started to change recently.
Over his last five games, including Tuesday, the backstop is hitting .438/.526/.750 with seven hits, two doubles, one homer, one RBI, three walks and one strikeout. His BABIP over that span is .429.
That’s obviously a very small sample. But then again, so is the entire season as the calendar turns to May.
Last week, Wells said that he’s been focused on sticking to his game plan. That became harder when he didn’t have any results to show for it, but Yankees hitting coach James Rowson preached patience with Wells.
“He’s still a young hitter in this league,” Rowson told the Daily News. “He’s still learning the league. He’s still learning some things over time. Not concerned. My conversations with Wellsy are more based on just staying under control, kind of keeping it simple. Thinking low line drive mentality, not trying to do too much.”
Fast forward to this recent stretch of production, and Wells said he hasn’t changed a thing about his approach.
It’s finally starting to pay off for him.
“I’ve been doing the same stuff,” Wells said “So just kind of trusting the process. It’s a long season and the game is such a big ebb and flow, so the ups and downs are what they are.”
