Austin Wells hits 430-foot homer in Yankees’ win

Wells returns to New York’s lineup for Sunday’s series finale against the Reds following a two-week absence due to cervical headaches. There’s minimal concern since precautionary imaging didn’t reveal any additional neck issues. The 26-year-old backstop went 2-for-12 with a pair of homers during a three-game minor league rehab stint with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He was hitting .166 with four homers in 169 plate appearances over 47 contests prior to hitting the shelf earlier this month.

Wells, who has been sidelined since early June due to cervical headaches, has been playing in minor league rehab games at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre since Tuesday. Expect Ali Sanchez to return to Triple-A upon Wells’ return on Sunday.

Perhaps more importantly, Wells completed the full nine innings behind the plate in his second rehab contest. It’s possible the 26-year-old backstop will return to New York for Friday’s series opener against the Reds, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him play a few additional rehab games before coming back. He’s been on the shelf with cervical headaches since early June.

Wells is trending towards making it back to New York’s lineup at some point later this week after hitting the injured list with cervical headaches earlier this month. The 26-year-old backstop logged seven inning behind the dish in his first rehab contest.

Wells went on the injured list over the weekend with cervical headaches. Being back on the field and doing baseball activities suggests that this might be a minimum stint on the injured list for the 26-year-old.

Wells underwent precautionary imaging after hitting the injured list with cervical headaches over the weekend. The 26-year-old backstop doesn’t have a definitive return timetable at the moment.

The Yankees obviously didn’t have much warning about this or they wouldn’t have sent down J.C. Escarra after Friday’s game. In fact, Aaron Boone was asked about Wells during his pregame availability tonight and said nothing about it. Escarra figures to face righties, with Ali Sánchez getting the call against lefties, until Wells returns.

The Yankees finally have a right-handed catcher on the roster in Ali Sánchez, who was promoted today, so it looks like Wells is going to more sitting against southpaws. Wells is hitting just .166/.278/.255 overall this year, and he’s come in at .100/.179/.160 versus lefties.

Wells broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth, sending a solo homer off Nick Martinez 414 feet into right center to give the Yankees the lead. It was the fourth homer of the season for Wells and his first in May, as the 26-year-old catcher has struggled mightily at the plate this month. Wells is slashing just .125/.208/.188 in May and is best left on fantasy benches until he can straighten things out at the plate.

Wells has been on the bench for the last two days amidst his immense struggles at the plate, but he’s back in the lineup on Tuesday. The 26-year-old is hitting .173/.292/.264 with three home runs on the season. He does have a solid 32/19 K/BB ratio in 36 games, and his hard-hit rate is at a career-high 46.8 percent, while his swinging strike rate is actually the same as last year. Wells doesn’t need to be on fantasy rosters right now, but it wouldn’t surprise us if he starts to figure things out at the plate. He might just be being a little too passive right now.