NEW YORK — New York Yankees scout Raúl Gonazález’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 Gonazález while playing for the Gastonia Honey Hunters in the independent Atlantic League, Escarra began to inundate the scout with updates on his progress.
“It’s a testament to J.C.,” Gonazález 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 on 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 an Uber driver, a substitute teacher and as a youth baseball coach.
But little has been said about how Escarra kept himself on the Yankees’ radar, and why 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,” Gonazález said. “That kind of production at catcher. Just trying to (see) more games of him behind the plate.”
As Gonazález and Escarra began to form their bond, Gonazález 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,” Gonazález said. “He knows what he wants. Priority-wise, he never stopped believing in himself. And he surrounded himself with people who believed in him.”
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 Gonazález, who checked in with pro scouting director Matt Daly and Charnin-Aker to let them know he was going to watch. Escarra looked great, Gonazález 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,” Gonazález 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 with not only when you dig on the numbers and he throws really well, outstanding with the framing stuff. (Escarra) seems to have some presence and some chops and some feel for calling a game back there.”
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 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,” Gonazález 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.”
(Top photo of J.C. Escarra: Evan Bernstein/Getty Images)