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NEW YORK — The pastor who turned Yankees catcher J.C. Escarra from a non-believer to a devout Christian has also been the brains behind a different project for the major leaguer. It began 15 rows back in a conference room of Nashville’s Opryland Hotel at a Faith & Freedom Coalition conference.
Franco Gennaro wasn’t just there for featured speaker President Donald Trump, who was between terms on June 17, 2022. This was also an opportunity to schmooze with pastors and hear speeches from a full lineup of politicians who identify as Christians: Nikki Haley, Newt Gingrich and Herschel Walker, among others.
Sitting to Gennaro’s left was a Northern Californian who had recently relocated to Nashville, a Christian-based filmmaker since the 1990s who has worked with big-screen legends and Oscar nominees. Ricky Borba was there as the plus one for his pastor, Ben Graham, a great nephew to late evangelist Billy Graham, and at the time, an actor and producer of Graham Family Films.
“I didn’t know Ricky from Adam and we get into a conversation,” said Gennaro, now president of Victory Missions, which harvests churches around the world.
They found out they used to live in the same city near Sacramento, went to the same church and had a friendship with the same pastor. The Tampa pastor and Nashville film director ended up exchanging numbers and have remained in touch.
Then, in March 2025, after Escarra made the Yankees’ Opening Day roster after a long and winding road as a minor leaguer, Gennaro had an epiphany.
“Right after I congratulated J.C., for making the team,” Gennaro said, “I was actually in my shower and all of a sudden, out of nowhere …”
They should make a movie about this kid, Gennaro thought.
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The Hialeah, Fla., native and son of Cuban immigrants has quite a backstory. Escarra spent eight seasons in the minors, played independent ball for $200 weekly, drove for Uber and was a substitute teacher in the offseason to help pay his mortgage, almost quitting so he and his high school sweetheart-turned wife could start a family.
Escarra was a college freshman at Florida International University in 2013 when he first met Gennaro, whose past sports ties included being a walk-on defensive back at Florida State under college football coaching legend Bobby Bowden and spiritual advisor for the Yankees’ Class A affiliate in Tampa. Gennaro was pastoring a Miami church that was on the FIU campus when Escarra was invited to a Sunday service by a teammate.
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Escarra became a regular who would sit in the front row with a bible in his hands and his future wife, Jocelyn, at his side. After one service, Escarra wanted to be baptized, and when the campus swimming pool was unavailable, he was dunked into a school fountain.
A dozen years later, when Escarra finally was a big leaguer at age 28, Gennaro reached out to his one connection in the film business.
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Filmmaker Ricky Borba hopes to make a documentary and streaming series on the life of Yankees catcher J.C. Escarra.Photo courtesy Ricky Borba
His talk with Borba began with a question:
“Have you heard of Yankees catcher J.C. Escarra?”
“No, I’m an A’s fan. I hate the Yankees.”
“Well, you need to look him up.”
Borba was quickly sold.
“The next thing I know, I’m on a flight to New York to meet J.C.,” he said. “My initial thought was a six-episode streaming series because there’s so much meat on the bone with his parents coming from Cuba, and then J.C., man, there’s a lot there.
“His story, the world needs to see it!”
The blueprint for the telling of Escarra’s story already has been altered.
“When I brought my producer on board, she said the smarter play here is to do a documentary first,” Borba said. “Wet the whistle, get people more familiar with the story, then do this series. Hopefully both happen, but right now we’re working on this documentary.”
An autobiography is in the works, too. Escarra is collaborating with a ghost writer.
The Yankees have agreed to allow usage of YES Network videos for the documentary, which would be shot in both English and Spanish, but there’s a holdup: money.
“We need a $600,000 investment,” Borba said. “If we get it, we know that we’ll make at least $1.2 million or $1.3 million when we sell this thing. That’s what we’ve been hearing from streaming platforms, which is fantastic. That means everybody gets paid.”
Borba recently thought he had an investor to foot the entire cost, but “then they said they’d get right back to us and it’s been crickets ever since,” he said.
ESPN was interested but told Borba that its “slate was full” until 2028.
“That killed it right there,” he said. “ESPN also said, ‘J.C.’s story is still being told. We’d have to do a wait-and-see thing.’ That’s the mindset of the world.
“This already is incredible story with J.C. It’s done and over with. He’s a Yankee. He did it. He didn’t give up. But the rest of the world wants to see if he’s going to win a World Series, this and that.
“Right now, we’re working very hard to get this documentary out.”
Borba already has a name for it: “Catching the Dream.”
The hope is that the documentary is released next winter or at the start of the 2027 baseball season, with a TBA streaming series probably tabled for at least three years.
“When I heard J.C.’s story,” Borba said, “to find a guy who lived that and now is a New York Yankee, which in my opinion is the most prestigious sports team in all of sports, you see God’s tapestry. But that wasn’t enough because those kinds of stories come all the time.
“J.C., the man, the guy who he is, that’s more intriguing to me than his story. Who’s that guy? It will speak to them on hope. It will speak to them on faith. It will speak to them on integrity.”
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Escarra’s story began before he was born. Prior to his parents meeting, they escaped Fidel Castro’s communist regime. His father, J.C. Escarra Sr., defected through another country and settled in Yonkers, New York, before moving to suburban Miami. His mother, Marinelys Escarra, left in the Mariel boatlift, a Castro-permitted mass emigration from April to October 1980, when 125,000 Cubans sailed to Florida for freedom.
J.C. was the first of their two children, both boys.
Baseball always was young J.C.’s passion, and he became a huge Yankees fan as a kid because his parents were diehards.
A left-handed hitter, Escarra was selected by the Orioles in the 15th round of the 2017 draft out of FIU.
He hit .315 playing Low-A and High-A in 2018, his first full season as a pro and he popped 13 homers in 127 games, repeating High-A in 2019. That was promising, but the Orioles weren’t thrilled with Escarra’s catching and started playing him at first base.
After the 2020 minor-league season was canceled due to COVID, Escarra jumped to Double-A and Triple-A in 2021, batting just .223 in 95 games. After the season, he was released.
When Escarra found no new opportunity with any of the other 29 major-league clubs, he played independent ball in Kansas City in 2022, then went to Puerto Rico after the season for winter ball.
By then, Escarra almost quit baseball.
In 2022, he earned $400 every two weeks. He got married that November and bought a home.
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Pastor Franco Gennaro (right) and his father, Tony Gennaro, pose with Yankees catcher J.C. Escarro after a 2025 game in Tampa.Photo courtesy Franco Gennaro
“When J.C. asked if I would officiate his wedding, that was about the time that he was going to give up baseball,” Gennaro said. “He had relatives that were telling him he gave it his best shot.
“I told him that my relationship with him is never based on J.C., the baseball player. It’s J.C., the man of God. But his wife is the one that came back and said, ‘I think you should give it one more year.’”
After a lot of praying, Escarra was back in independent ball again in 2023, when the Atlantic League’s Gastonia Honey Hunters raised their budget to pay him $1,000 a month. He couldn’t afford to play for less.
His career took off that season. First, he hit .348 with 15 homers in 41 games with Gastonia, then he went to the Mexican League and batted .329 with six homers in 21 games for Tijuana.
After the season, he played winter ball in Puerto Rico and continued to impress. There, he mostly played catcher after playing a lot of first base for years.
His catching was noticed by a Yankees scout, and the next year, he was in their organization on a minor-league contract.
At Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2024, he hit .251 with 12 homers in 125 games and made the Yankees optimistic that he had a future in the majors as a catcher. He confirmed their belief after the season while playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic.
That November, Escarra was added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster, then a door burst open to a big-league opportunity in December when Jose Trevino, an All-Star and Platinum Glove catcher two years earlier, was traded.
After a good showing in 2025 spring training, Escarra’s dream came true. He was a big leaguer.
“Knowing each guy has a very unique path to get here, J.C.’s is probably as unique as anyone’s,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s a testament to his talent, and really, his perseverance and his ability to adapt going through the minor leagues. And to become the level of catcher he’s become, that’s been pretty impressive to watch.”
One of the best parts of Boone’s job is telling a rookie at the end of spring training that he’s going to the big leagues for the first time. When Escarra was called into the manager’s office for a meeting in March 2025, Boone pretended like he was making a difficult cut for 30 seconds before saying, “Nah, you’re going to the big leagues.”
Sitting across from Boone, Escarra clapped his hands and let out a laugh before saying, “The Major Leagues!”
Escarra spent most of last season with the Yankees and he made their team out of spring training again this year as a backup to starting catcher Austin Wells. He hit just .202 with two homers in 40 games last year and was 0-for-9 with one RBI in his first four games this year, but the Yankees still are very high on all parts of his game.
“Look, I make no secret about J.C.,” Boone said. “The only thing he hasn’t gotten yet is a real opportunity to play regularly. There’s no doubt in my mind that if he played regularly, he’d be a top 10-15 catcher on both sides of the ball in the league.
“I feel that strongly about him as a catcher defensively, but I think if given the opportunity, he would hit, too.”
Escarra’s focus is on the Yankees, of course, but God, his wife and 9-month-old son, J.C. Escarra III, come first.
He’s also very excited about the projects in the works, especially the potential for a streaming series on his life.
“I want a big-time actor playing me, but it’s got to be a good-looking Latin and it has to be somebody can play the game, too,” Escarra said. “I don’t want him to look like he can’t swing a bat!”
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