Happy Saturday all! We’re heading behind the dish to take a look back at our backstops this past season, starting with the veteran Austin Wynns. A vet of seven big league seasons, Wynns came aboard midway through the season and acted as the backup to starter Shea Langeliers from there on. He’s set to repeat that job this coming season as the primary backup yet again. You need a capable backup behind the plate, something we all saw last year when Langeliers went down.
How Was He Acquired?
Wynns began
the season in Cincinnati acting as the Reds’ primary backup to Jose Trevino, who was pushed into starting duties to begin the year after the Reds’ starter behind the plate Tyler Stephenson began the season on the IL with an oblique issue. Wynns might have found himself on the move sooner if Stephenson was healthy to start the year, and once he did return the team began looking to move their veteran backup catcher.
After seeing Jhonny Pereda struggle in his first action with the A’s the front office decided to beef up the depth with a veteran addition. The team swung a trade for Wynns services, acquiring the San Diego native for simply cash considerations from the Reds. Not a massive trade, but one that could easily pay dividends sooner than later.
What Were The Expectations?
When the team brought him aboard Pereda was the backup to Langeliers and was struggling in the playing time he got. Through the first two months of the season he had gone just 7-for-40 with two doubles. That’s not great production, even from a backup catcher and the A’s went out and made an addition. Bringing in Wynns the hope was that he could at least be a serviceable backup and provide some production, and more importantly be a better safety net in case anything happened to ‘Bangeliers’.
2025 Results
Wynns got out to a hot start in Cincinnati, collecting 16 hits in just 40 at-bats, the same number as Pereda had gotten at the time of the trade. Once he was wearing the Green & Gold those numbers tailed off, but not before Wynns played the hero a couple of times. In just his third game with the A’s he hit a home run to pad a small lead, helping to get the team a win in Kansas City. He followed that up by hitting another home run against the Royals, this one to put the A’s ahead for good in an eventual 3-2 win. He’d only been with the team for a week but he had already done more to help the squad get some wins than Pereda had done in two months prior.
That hot start with his new club didn’t last though. Wynns got some extra playing time after Langeliers went down with his injury but didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. He mostly split time with fellow backup Willie MacIver before suffering a strained abdomen in early August. He wouldn’t need surgery or anything like that, but his season was over. He finished with an overall .291/.321/.544 slash line with six home runs split between the A’s and Reds.
2026 Outlook
Wynns remains on the roster and looks like he has the backup catcher job all but secured. That’s especially true now that former first round pick Daniel Susac has been taken away via the Rule 5 Draft. There was a chance he would lose out to a younger option but that’s now out the window. The team is likely to bring in another backstop to be a backup to the backup but unless the A’s swing a big trade for a new catcher it seems that Wynns has nothing to worry about as far as job security when pitchers and catchers report in a couple months.
