Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across Major League Baseball. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Yankees fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
The countdown to the MLB Trade Deadline is on, as July is hours away from ending and 6pm ET on Monday, August 3rd will be here before we know it. It’s been no secret that the Yankees are looking for another catcher to join the fold since their situation behind the plate
has been a disaster in 2026.
Starter Austin Wells has been a colossal disappointment and both J.C. Escarra and Ali Sánchez have hit like backups. Wells remains an excellent defender, but that’s not enough when your hitting this poorly. All told, they’ve combined to bat .183/.262/.287 with 8 homers in 387 plate appearances — the fewer than all other teams except for the Red Sox, Angels, and Rays. Their .549 OPS beats only the White Sox, and their weighted wRC+ of 55 is third-worst, topping only the Phillies and those aforementioned Pale Hose. No matter how you slice it, they’ve been lousy.
When we ran our Reacts survey last week, 74 percent of Yankees fans unsurprisingly said that catcher was their greatest need (though it’s certainly not the only one). So for this week’s edition, I put forth some options that have been discussed as possible targets: Ryan Jeffers of the Twins, Hunter Goodman of the Rockies, and Tyler Stephenson of the Reds. I wanted to know who fans thought the Yankees would get — not necssarily who their preference was of the three.
The results of the poll are below:
Clear as mud, eh?
Honestly, the complicating factor in this survey is probably the larger MLB-wide discussion around the Twins’ deadline plans. They entered 2026 with low expectations but have played well to stay in the hunt for both the AL Central and a Wild Card spot. July has been their best month yet at 14-9, and with a new Pohlad brother in charge anyway (not to mention a new baseball operations head and manager), there’s motivation to win the fans back after a lackluster couple years of follow-up to the excitement of 2023.
What does all that mean? Well, Jeffers might not actually be available if the Twins are buying (as they say), so while I think that he would have been the most logical answer less than a week ago, I can see that changing responses as this present week progressed. Jeffers could still move in a trade for major-league pieces, but those are far less common and hard to envision coming to pass. He got the slight plurality in this survey at 33 percent, but not by much.
Along those lines, ultramod2 offered Stephenson (26 percent) up as the most likely, if not only because the others were further long shots. Goodman’s a masher, but Colorado finding the package they want for him is doubtful.
SacredLegend went with ther “Other” option, which actually matched Stephenson at 26 percent. His suggestions of Arizona’s Gabriel Moreno, Miami’s Liam Hicks, and St. Louis’ Iván Herrera had some fair rebuttals from TheNeutralMatt though. That leaves Hicks, and while the Fish are notoriously cheap, he is a pre-arbitration player making very little until after 2027 (under the current CBA anyway).
Doc123 also went with the “Other” option, and I think their suggestion might be the most plausible from the suggestions in the thread: erstwhile Rangers All-Star catcher Jonah Heim, who began the year backing up Drake Baldwin in Atlanta and then landed on the A’s in a roster shuffle.
Those A’s have little reason to keep him on his one-year deal, so while he’s no great shakes (97 wRC+), he can hit from the right side and that figure is still way higher than what they’re getting from Wells and company.
Ouch. Tough break!
These survey results are sponsored by FanDuel.
