NEW YORK — New York Yankees scout Raúl González’s phone buzzed early in the morning. The text message came with videos. There was a catcher in full equipment in an empty local gym filming his workouts. The clips ran the gamut: blocking, framing and throwing to bases.
It was April 2023. Few believed J.C. Escarra could catch in the major leagues at the time. He needed to change that. So after he met González while playing for the Gastonia Honey Hunters in the independent Atlantic League, Escarra began to inundate the scout with updates on his progress.
Advertisement
“It’s a testament to J.C.,” González said. “He wanted to badly enough, and he had to make it work.”
It was also a testament to the Yankees’ scouting department, which watched Escarra beam as he rounded the bases for his first major-league home run in a 5-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium Sunday night. He’s played nine games this season, backing up starter Austin Wells.
Yankees celebrate J.C. Escarra’s first MLB home run pic.twitter.com/yADi8B5nFm
— Brendan Kuty 🧟♂️ (@BrendanKutyNJ) April 27, 2025
A lot has been made of the obstacles Escarra, 30, overcame to make his big-league debut this season. While playing in indy ball, he moonlighted as an Uber driver, a substitute teacher and a youth baseball coach.
But little has been said about how Escarra kept himself on the Yankees’ radar, and why the Yankees stuck with him, intrigued by his switch from first baseman to catcher, as well as his bat, work ethic and personality.
“It was a huge group effort between Raul seeing him in person and everyone here,” said Adam Charnin-Aker, the Yankees’ assistant director of pro scouting.
The Yankees started to become interested in Escarra in 2021 when he was playing in the Baltimore Orioles’ system. The Orioles cut him after spring training in 2022, and he began his indy ball career. The Yankees were back on him in 2023 when scout James Stokes saw him playing in the Atlantic League.
“We heard he was catching — we knew the bat was interesting already,” González said. “That kind of production at catcher. Just trying to (see) more games of him behind the plate.”
As González and Escarra began to form their bond, González would send the videos Escarra sent him to the Yankees’ front office. Catching coordinator Aaron Gershenfeld would watch. They all liked what they saw.
“Skills-wise (and) IQ-wise, he’s just a different human being,” González said. “He knows what he wants. Priority-wise, he never stopped believing in himself. And he surrounded himself with people who believed in him.”
Advertisement
They investigated further. There wasn’t much data to gather, however. Independent league ballparks aren’t as high-tech as minor-league facilities, and the teams don’t have nearly the same technology.
The Yankees even found themselves scouting video of Escarra’s throws to second base after warming up the pitcher between innings.
“We were trying to find actual good videos where we could measure certain things about him,” Charnin-Aker said.
Perhaps the biggest moment the Yankees had in scouting Escarra came late in 2023 when Escarra was playing on an all-star team for the Puerto Rican winter league versus the Dominican Republic. Escarra found out he would be the starting catcher for the game, so he alerted González, who checked in with pro scouting director Matt Daly and Charnin-Aker to let them know he was going to watch. Escarra looked great, González said.
“When you wake up in the morning as a scout and you’re going to make a route … the first thing you see in your phone when you wake up, you see 16 videos … he was practicing blocking the night before in an indoor facility,” González said. “It tells me something. That kept on and on and on for weeks and months. I would upload it into the system and say, ‘Hey, this guy keeps grinding. He keeps communicating. He keeps talking.’ It made a tremendous difference.
“He kept pushing. He kept insisting. That made him appealing, not just to us as a pro scouting department, but to us as an organization as a whole. There are individuals who can separate themselves and make all the difference with their makeup.”
So the Yankees signed Escarra in January 2024, sent him to Double A and he immediately impressed. Boone praised his ability behind the plate Sunday night.
“As much as we liked the bat, he’s here because he can catch,” Boone said. “He really earned that reputation in our organization last year, not only when you dig on the numbers — he throws really well, (he’s) outstanding with the framing stuff and seems to have some presence and some chops and some feel for calling a game back there.”
Advertisement
Escarra said he “didn’t feel it off the bat” when he hit his first big-league home run — an eighth-inning solo shot off reliever Chad Green that traveled 105 mph and 415 feet, increasing the Yankees’ lead to four runs. His teammates mobbed him in the dugout after he crossed home plate. The fan who caught the ball in the right field stands returned it to Escarra, and Escarra signed a bat for him. The baseball was going to be given to his father, a lifelong Yankees fan who lived in nearby Yonkers, N.Y., for 15 years.
“If you were to ask me two years ago if I would be here doing this, I would say you’re lying,” he said. “It’s stuff that you dream about.”
It’s also the stuff that started with the Yankees taking note of Escarra’s progress and tracking him through his independent league journey.
“Ever since we started going through the process, it was a whole team effort,” González said. “We identified the bat right there and the athleticism right there. We just kept on him. Part of the duty they charge me with as a scout is to break down the makeup, who this guy is as a human being. That was part of the job we did, as well. He had hunger, desire (and) attitude.”
(Photo of J.C. Escarra: Evan Bernstein / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
About the author
Aided by epic Bucks collapse, Pacers advance with thrilling OT win
An incredible Game 5 collapse by the Milwaukee Bucks stunned NBA fans Tuesday night as Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers closed out their first-round playoff series with a dramatic 119-118 overtime victory.The Bucks held a 20-point lead early in the game, only to see the Pacers battle back and eventually force overtime. Milwaukee then built a seven-point lead in the extra period before falling apart.AdvertisementIndiana’s stunning turnaround began with 40 seconds left in OT and Milwaukee leading, 118-111. After corralling a rebound off a missed free throw, Pacers forward Pascal Siakam passed it to guard Andrew Nembhard for a deep 3 to cut the deficit to four and force a Bucks timeout. Nembhard added to his heroics with a steal shortly after the inbounds pass, setting the stage for Haliburton.A timely and-1 by Haliburton after a foul on Bucks […]
Why Rick Tocchet left the Canucks and what it means for their offseason
Rick Tocchet and Vancouver Canucks hockey operations leadership spent last weekend in meetings, discussing the difficult year they’d just endured, the future of the organization and their plans for a high stakes, all-in summer.Less than a week later, Tocchet and his agent informed Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford that he’d decided not to return to Vancouver as head coach.As the Tocchet saga reached its conclusion this week, it really wasn’t a back-and-forth negotiation. There was nothing adversarial or acrimonious about it.The Canucks “stepped up” financially, according to two league sources. Keeping Tocchet was the club’s first choice, a fact that Rutherford wasn’t going to shy away from Tuesday simply because the outcome was a disappointing one from the team’s perspective.AdvertisementAs Tocchet wrestled with his decision over the past week, which was an arduous process for him, it wasn’t […]
The Bucks are toast, and trading Giannis Antetokounmpo may be the only path forward
There’s no way to sugarcoat this: The Milwaukee Bucks are done.The only important thing to monitor now is whether they trade Giannis Antetokounmpo, and if so, when. Damian Lillard’s Achilles injury was the final blow, the last solid piece of the Good Ship Giannis that was keeping it afloat long after the rest of the rotting ship was overrun with rats.AdvertisementLet’s start here: You’ll pardon Lillard if some of these plot lines seem familiar, because within the tragedy of his injury lies multiple small ironies.The first is that this was exactly how his Portland Trail Blazers team ended up rebuilding in 2015, when a March Achilles injury to Wesley Matthews torpedoed a 51-win team. The campaign ended with a first-round defeat to Memphis (as the Grizzlies’ VP of basketball operations at the time, I’m guessing I enjoyed that series more […]
Lane Kiffin, Head Coach of Ole Miss, warned the Dallas Cowboys and Eagles about what Jaxson Dart will do to them with the New York Giants
The New York Giants made a splash in the recent NFL Draft in Green Bay. In the first round with the No. 3 pick, they selected Penn State's standout defender Abdul Carter, and later in the same round, they made a trade with the Houston Texans to get pick 25, using it to draft the quarterback they hope is their future: Jaxson Dart from Ole Miss.Done with it! Deion Sanders publicly calls out a university for allegedly tampering with his playersEarlier in the year, the Giants were favorites to draft Shedeur Sanders, but according to reports, head coach Brian Daboll was not pleased with Sanders after their interviews, and instead, fell in love with Dart. In his first year, Dart will be learning behind Russell Wilson, but in a couple of years, he could become the face of the Giants […]
Lakers eye Game 5 reinforcement as Maxi Kleber upgraded to questionable for L.A. debut vs. Timberwolves
Getty Images JJ Redick has been desperate for bench help throughout the first-round series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves. His faith in his players outside of the five-man core of LeBron James, Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith has gotten so low that, in the second half of Game 4, he elected to use that lineup for all 24 minutes without a single substitution. He was the first head coach of the play-by-play era ever to do so in a playoff game, but it looks like there's a chance he could get reinforcements in time for Game 5.Maxi Kleber, the forgotten player in the Dončić trade, has not yet suited up for the Lakers. He has been out since his acquisition due to surgery on his right foot. However, the Lakers upgraded him to […]
Fluminense x Ferroviária pelo Brasileirão Feminino: Tudo sobre o confronto, onde assistir e escalações
Guerreiras Grenás vão em busca dos três pontos contra o Fluminense fora de casa (Reprodução/Rafael Zocco/Ferroviária) Fluminense e Ferroviária se enfrentam na quinta-feira (1), às 15h (horário de Brasília), no estádio de Moça Bonita, no Rio de Janeiro. Enquanto os donos da casa lutam para permanecer no G8, os visitantes são as líderes do Brasileirão Feminino. As tricolores chegam para a partida vindo de derrota para o Bahia fora de casa por 2×1, o que quebrou uma sequência de quatro jogos sem perder. Porém, mesmo com a derrota, o Fluminense se manteve no G8, sendo o 6º colocado com 11 pontos, tendo uma campanha com três vitórias, dois empates e duas derrotas. PUBLICIDADE PUBLICIDADE Por outro lado, a Ferroviária vive uma excelente temporada, tendo um dos elencos mais fortes do país. Na 7ª rodada, as Guerreiras Grenás venceram o Palmeiras […]
Related
Aided by epic Bucks collapse, Pacers advance with thrilling OT win
An incredible Game 5 collapse by the Milwaukee Bucks stunned NBA fans Tuesday night as Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers closed out their first-round playoff series with a dramatic 119-118 overtime victory.The Bucks held a 20-point lead early in the game, only to see the Pacers battle back and eventually force overtime. Milwaukee then built a seven-point lead in the extra period before falling apart.AdvertisementIndiana’s stunning turnaround began with 40 seconds left in OT and Milwaukee leading, 118-111. After corralling a rebound off a missed free throw, Pacers forward Pascal Siakam passed it to guard Andrew Nembhard for a deep 3 to cut the deficit to four and force a Bucks timeout. Nembhard added to his heroics with a steal shortly after the inbounds pass, setting the stage for Haliburton.A timely and-1 by Haliburton after a foul on Bucks […]
Why Rick Tocchet left the Canucks and what it means for their offseason
Rick Tocchet and Vancouver Canucks hockey operations leadership spent last weekend in meetings, discussing the difficult year they’d just endured, the future of the organization and their plans for a high stakes, all-in summer.Less than a week later, Tocchet and his agent informed Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford that he’d decided not to return to Vancouver as head coach.As the Tocchet saga reached its conclusion this week, it really wasn’t a back-and-forth negotiation. There was nothing adversarial or acrimonious about it.The Canucks “stepped up” financially, according to two league sources. Keeping Tocchet was the club’s first choice, a fact that Rutherford wasn’t going to shy away from Tuesday simply because the outcome was a disappointing one from the team’s perspective.AdvertisementAs Tocchet wrestled with his decision over the past week, which was an arduous process for him, it wasn’t […]
The Bucks are toast, and trading Giannis Antetokounmpo may be the only path forward
There’s no way to sugarcoat this: The Milwaukee Bucks are done.The only important thing to monitor now is whether they trade Giannis Antetokounmpo, and if so, when. Damian Lillard’s Achilles injury was the final blow, the last solid piece of the Good Ship Giannis that was keeping it afloat long after the rest of the rotting ship was overrun with rats.AdvertisementLet’s start here: You’ll pardon Lillard if some of these plot lines seem familiar, because within the tragedy of his injury lies multiple small ironies.The first is that this was exactly how his Portland Trail Blazers team ended up rebuilding in 2015, when a March Achilles injury to Wesley Matthews torpedoed a 51-win team. The campaign ended with a first-round defeat to Memphis (as the Grizzlies’ VP of basketball operations at the time, I’m guessing I enjoyed that series more […]
Lane Kiffin, Head Coach of Ole Miss, warned the Dallas Cowboys and Eagles about what Jaxson Dart will do to them with the New York Giants
The New York Giants made a splash in the recent NFL Draft in Green Bay. In the first round with the No. 3 pick, they selected Penn State's standout defender Abdul Carter, and later in the same round, they made a trade with the Houston Texans to get pick 25, using it to draft the quarterback they hope is their future: Jaxson Dart from Ole Miss.Done with it! Deion Sanders publicly calls out a university for allegedly tampering with his playersEarlier in the year, the Giants were favorites to draft Shedeur Sanders, but according to reports, head coach Brian Daboll was not pleased with Sanders after their interviews, and instead, fell in love with Dart. In his first year, Dart will be learning behind Russell Wilson, but in a couple of years, he could become the face of the Giants […]
Lakers eye Game 5 reinforcement as Maxi Kleber upgraded to questionable for L.A. debut vs. Timberwolves
Getty Images JJ Redick has been desperate for bench help throughout the first-round series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves. His faith in his players outside of the five-man core of LeBron James, Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith has gotten so low that, in the second half of Game 4, he elected to use that lineup for all 24 minutes without a single substitution. He was the first head coach of the play-by-play era ever to do so in a playoff game, but it looks like there's a chance he could get reinforcements in time for Game 5.Maxi Kleber, the forgotten player in the Dončić trade, has not yet suited up for the Lakers. He has been out since his acquisition due to surgery on his right foot. However, the Lakers upgraded him to […]
Fluminense x Ferroviária pelo Brasileirão Feminino: Tudo sobre o confronto, onde assistir e escalações
Guerreiras Grenás vão em busca dos três pontos contra o Fluminense fora de casa (Reprodução/Rafael Zocco/Ferroviária) Fluminense e Ferroviária se enfrentam na quinta-feira (1), às 15h (horário de Brasília), no estádio de Moça Bonita, no Rio de Janeiro. Enquanto os donos da casa lutam para permanecer no G8, os visitantes são as líderes do Brasileirão Feminino. As tricolores chegam para a partida vindo de derrota para o Bahia fora de casa por 2×1, o que quebrou uma sequência de quatro jogos sem perder. Porém, mesmo com a derrota, o Fluminense se manteve no G8, sendo o 6º colocado com 11 pontos, tendo uma campanha com três vitórias, dois empates e duas derrotas. PUBLICIDADE PUBLICIDADE Por outro lado, a Ferroviária vive uma excelente temporada, tendo um dos elencos mais fortes do país. Na 7ª rodada, as Guerreiras Grenás venceram o Palmeiras […]
Be the first to leave a comment