The average fan might not know that New York Yankees catcher Austin Wells is part Dominican. Wells will play for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic, according to Josafat Pérez of Abriendo Sports.
Cambio importante en el roster @WBCBaseball : Austin Wells ha cambiado de decisión. Tras el nacimiento de su hija y con todo en perfecto estado de salud, ha decidido participar con la selección dominicana.
Wells entra por Agustín Ramírez y se une a Yainer Díaz como los catchers… https://t.co/HOJ4CTcZJS pic.twitter.com/0YAwpuucJ8
— Josafat Pérez (@josafatperez) February 2, 2026
Wells, 26, is Dominican through his mother, and his maternal grandparents were born there. This will be a good addition to strengthen the Dominican Republic’s defense with a lineup that is absolutely loaded. Dominican Republic general manager Nelson Cruz went out of his way to recruit Wells on Oct. 7, 2025, according to Daniel Santana of Diario Libre.
Wells and his Career with the Yankees
Wells was the Yankees first round pick out of Arizona in the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft. Wells had to battle a lot of questions about his defense and positional fit. When he was drafted, many scouts thought that he might have had to be converted to a first baseman or catcher. Wells didn’t let that deter him and spent extra time working behind the scenes with the Yankees’ minor league coaches.
2021 was Wells’ first year in the Yankees’ minor league system, and he had 16 passed balls with their Low-A Tampa and High-A Hudson Valley affiliates. In 2022 and 2023, he had nine passed balls combined in the minors.
In September of 2023, he made his MLB debut with the Yankees as a catcher, but he only played 19 games. Wells broke camp with the team in 2024, and he was on the MLB roster for the entire season. That was not smooth sailing for Wells with an American League-leading 11 errors in 872 ⅓ innings and a fielding percentage of .988.
This past season, Wells really stepped up his game, cutting down his errors to three and increasing his fielding percentage to .997 in 1,000 ⅓ innings.