Yankees have perfect trade candidate that almost every MLB team should want

Every time New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone talks about J.C. Escarra, he makes Escarra seem like one of the best catchers in baseball.

Boone specifically will say that Escarra would be a top 10-15 catcher in the game if he got to play every day.

The problem is that the Yankees have Austin Wells playing most days behind the plate. They've also got Ben Rice to potentially catch.

Wells and Rice each hit left-handed, the same as Escarra.

There's really no path for him to play, no matter how good he has been defensively and even offensively when called upon.

And while the Yankees seem committed to riding things out with Escarra as their backup catcher, they ought to see if another team views Escarra the way Boone does.

Most teams could use a catcher like Escarra.

"Some team out there should try to trade for J.C. Escarra," writes the X account Foolish Baseball. "Statcast graded him overall as a plus defensive catcher last year, and I think the bat would come around with a larger sample. He walked almost as much as he struck out in 2025, with above-average bat speed and exit velo."

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At least if the Yankees shopped Escarra, they'd get to see if he has some real trade value. Maybe they've already done that quietly and discovered other teams don't view him the same way.

It's obviously not a bad thing to have a reliable backup catcher, but the Yankees could probably use another right-handed bat or another pitcher. Escarra seems a bit surplus to proceedings.

And hey, if they're so high on Escarra, maybe they should explore trading a different catcher. There are probably options here, if the Yankees wanted to be bold. Right now, they're sticking with the status quo.

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