ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Yankees’ player of the game belt, a treasured prize that players hand out in the clubhouse after every victory, was displayed on a chair in front of the first locker to the left of the main entrance after a long Denver Sunday of rain and baseball at Coors Field.
Standing there with a crowd of reporters in his space and a smile on his face was the hitting star of a 5-4 Yankees win over the Rockies.
Rookie catcher J.C. Escarra‘s first career three-hit game included a run-scoring double in the second inning and RBI single in the eighth, the first an opposite-field liner to left and the next a pulled liner to right.
“The major leagues, it’s everything it’s hyped up to be and I’m blessed to do it with the New York Yankees,” Escarra said with a grin.
His amazing story should be made into a movie.
The son of two Cuban defectors was playing independent ball in his late 20s while driving for Uber in 2022 and 2023. He was back in organized baseball last season after signing a minor-leaguer contract with the Yankees, but began the year as the third-string catcher for the Double-A Somerset Patriots.
A year later, Escarra is the Yankees’ No. 2 catcher behind Austin Wells.
He’s a rookie, but not a Baby Bomber.
On April 24, Escarra turned 30. Only Yankees’ four position players on the club were born earlier — Paul Goldschmidt (37), DJ LeMahieu (36), Aaron Judge (33) and Pablo Reyes (31).
This inspiring story of perseverance isn’t over.
Another chapter is being written this year.
The stats don’t tell the true story how much Escarra is helping the Yankees, who are 33-20 record and leading the AL East by six games after Monday night’s 5-1 win over the Angels.
Although Escarra is batting just .244 after his breakout game on Sunday and hasn’t thrown out a basestealer, he’s getting deserved rave reviews for his hitting and catching.
“We know J.C. can really hit,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s a little different role where he’s playing every three or four days, so it’s probably a little harder to get into that offensive rhythm. But (Sunday’s game is) what he’s capable of.”
Learning how to stay sharp at the plate is a work in progress for Escarra, who is still getting used to playing sparingly. He’s started only 13 of the Yankees’ 53 games, appeared in just 19 and has only 54 plate appearances. He’s gone five days without playing a game and didn’t play for four days three times.
‘It’s tough because I’m not seeing pitching every day, but I try to do the best I can,” Escarra said. “With my coaches, my pre-work, my routine, I try to make it seem like I’m in there every single day. Same routine.
“It’s baseball. Sometimes it’s going to be there, sometimes it’s not. But I put in the work for it to be there.”
When Sunday’s game was delayed by rain for almost two hours with the Yankees batting in the fifth inning, Escarra did a little relaxing, some stretching and then headed to the indoor batting cage. He wanted to be ready when the game restarted.
“I was on deck,” Escarra said. “I got ready to finish that game.”
His prep work is big part of the evolution of his catching skills, which had tremendous growth last season working with Yankees’ catching instructors for the first time. He’s always had a pretty good throwing arm, but his blocking and game-calling greatly improved.
It certainly was very noticeable to Yankees rookie right-hander Will Warren, who played with Escarra last season in Triple-A.
“I’ve seen the grind he puts in every day,” Warren said. “I think he’s solid back there. He’s got his game plan and we talked throughout.”
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Escarra and Warren worked together Sunday to get through a first-inning crisis and turn the outing into a good one. The Rockies scored two runs after loading the bases with nobody out, but Warren retired 12 of the final 13 hitters he faced before the long rain delay ended his day.
“Catching is my first job,” Escarra said. “I know my role as the backup catcher. Get in there and work well with the pitcher. Call a great game.”
Baseball Savant’s analytics show Escarra has been impactful behind the plate.
His plus-2 framing rating ranks ninth among 57 ranked catchers and is ahead of the Yankees’ last three backup catchers – Kyle Higashioka’s plus-1 with the Rangers, Ben Rortvedt’s 0 with the Rays, and Trevino’s 0 with the Reds.
His plus-1 blocks above average rating ranks 24th and is higher than Wells’ minus-1.
His throwing numbers are good, too. No caught stealings, but he’s only been run on four times. At least part of the reason his 1.93 seconds pop time is above average (and 21st among 77 ranked catchers) and he has an average arm (79.2 mph, ranked 38th).
“He can really swing the bat, but the real good part about it is what he’s bringing behind the plate on the days he catches,” Boone said. “He’s been excellent. He commands a staff. He’s really good behind the plate.
“On the days I don’t have Wells in there, we’ve got a ton of confidence in J.C., and it’s good to see him get some results with the bat, too.”
It didn’t take long for Escarra to earn mad respect from his teammates.
They admire and appreciate his work habits. They adore his outgoing personality and friendliness, which is similar to clubhouse favorite Oswaldo Cabrera’s.
Escarra’s teammates love his backstory, too.
He first dreamed of becoming a big leaguer growing up near Miami and was good enough in high school that the Mets took a flier on him in the 37th round of the 2013 draft.
Escarra opted to play college ball at Florida Intentional. A first baseman who did some catching, he showed enough potential with the bat to be drafted in the 15th round in 2017 by the Orioles in the 15th round, but was released in 2021 before getting out of Double-A after four unspectacular seasons and another missed due to the COVID minor-league shutdown.
Unwilling to give up on baseball, Escarra switched back to catching, his second position in college, and kept dreaming by playing independent ball for the Kansas City Monarchs and Gastonia (N.C.) Honey Hunters. He played in the Mexican League for the Tijuana Toros and Union Laguna Algodoneros. He traveled to Puerto Rico for winter ball.
By 2023, Escarra contemplated giving up, but continued dreaming after receiving his new wife’s blessing.
Her teacher salary wasn’t enough to cover the mortgage on their townhouse though, so he took on odd jobs to pay a few quick bucks … construction work, substitute teaching, youth baseball coaching, food delivery and Uber driver in his leased Lexus.
His carshare driving experience was enjoyable, but didn’t pay much. Escarra made lots of trips back and forth to Miami International and drove a lot of seniors to and from doctor’s appointments, but mostly for peanuts because Uber usually keeps about 70 percent of fares and many passengers didn’t tip.
Escarra’s big break was signing a minor-league contract in January 2024 with the Yankees because it came with a big-league spring training invite. They liked his bat and catching potential that spring and assigned him to the Somerset Patriots, but it wasn’t easy opening eyes there early on because they had two catchers ahead of him who were ranked prospects, Carlos Narvaez and Ben Rice.
Rice’s 2 1/2 months playing first base for the Yankees led to more playing time for Escarra, and he made the most of it.
By the time Escarra finished the season in Triple-A, the Yankees realized they had a real find. They were impressed with his left-handed bat and amazed by his catching, which ranked best among all Triple-A receivers in their analytics. When Escarra was in Puerto Rico for winter ball and raking his way to a batting title, he was added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster in November.
Six weeks later, the Yankees traded backup catcher Jose Trevino to the Reds. Also in December, Narvaez was dealt to the Red Sox.
A door suddenly was wide open for Escarra, who barreled through by having a great spring training to earn a spot on the Yankees’ Opening Day roster as the No. 2 catcher. He earned it by beating out Alex Jackson, a catcher who arrived in the Trevino deal with 124 games of MLB experience over five seasons.
Escarra usually starts just once a series, but he’s had his moments at the plate and the Yankees like his receiving every time he’s in the lineup whether he’s working with an experienced veteran like Carlos Rodon or fellow rookie like Warren.
“I’m just trying to relieve a little bit of pressure from Wells,” Escarra said. “He’s doing such a good job back there. Learn from him and do as good of a job as he does when he’s in there.”
Escarra has won over his teammates. He’s known as a great guy with a great story, and now he’s helping the Yankees win games when he’s playing.
“I’ve seen the grind he puts in every day, so to see him have success is awesome,” Warren said.
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.