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KANSAS CITY — Like every game day, Yankees catcher J.C. Escarra’s prep for backup duties Wednesday included an afternoon visit to the indoor batting cage to get loose.
He starts with underhand tosses, and his first round felt strange as the normally left-handed hitter swung from the right side of the plate, whacking balls into the netting.
“What I’ve been doing every time I get in the cage, my first round is kind of messing around, but I’ve been taking five swings righty every day,” Escarra said before the Yankees blanked the Royals 7-0 for a three-game series sweep at Kauffman Stadium.
For Friday’s series opener versus the Athletics, the over/under is set at 10 total runs on FanDuel. Our complete FanDuel Sportsbook review will help you figure out how to register and use their app.
This righty experiment started last week when Escarra took a small first step toward exploring switch-hitting in the offseason.
The idea emerged from a pre-game conversation with NJ.com about Escarra playing sparingly during his first two seasons as a big leaguer behind starter Austin Wells, who also bats left-handed.
During the interview, Escarra was jokingly told that he should take up switch-hitting. He responded that he was “right-handed for everything” other than hitting, including throwing, golfing and writing.
“Talking about it, I started thinking about it,” Escarra said. “I’m not committed yet, but it’s been on my mind some. We’ll see where it goes. All things are possible.”
Escarra, who turned 31 in April, proved that by reaching the majors last year. His eight-year minor-league journey included playing independent ball for $200 a week and working side jobs, like driving for Uber and substitute teaching, to help pay the mortgage on his South Florida home. His wife talked him out of quitting baseball at one point, then less than two years later he signed a minor-league contract with the Yankees and climbed from Double-A to the majors.
The journey is so inspiring that a movie producer hopes to make a documentary and a streaming series on Escarra’s life.
So far, Escarra is still finding his footing offensively. He’s regarded as a solid defensive catcher with elite blocking and game-calling skills, but he’s batting just .200 with seven RBI in 55 at-bats across 19 games this season. Last year, he hit .202 with two homers and 11 RBI in 40 games.
Escarra and the Yankees are confident that he’s a better hitter than he’s shown, but the catcher feels that he has nothing to lose by experimenting this winter to see if he could even have a chance to someday handle left-handed pitching from the right side of the plate.
“It’s been just flips, so I don’t know how I’d do if a ball was coming 95 mph,” Escarra said. “I’ve got to hit off the pitching machine to find out. Right now, I just do it now to warm up.”
Manager Aaron Boone and hitting coach James Rowson didn’t know about Escarra’s experiment until asked to comment before Tuesday’s game.
“Wow!” Boone said. “Try it at 31 years old? I don’t know. I’ll have to check him out in there and see what I think. I didn’t even know about that. It’s intriguing.”
Rowson was more caught off guard.
“From my perspective, you hear that for the first time, I’ve got to see what J.C.’s thinking about,” Rowson said. “I’m solely locked in on him hitting left-handed right now for this year, but if he was serious about that, then it would be more of a conversation to see where it went. But right now, that probably would be the last thing on my mind about J.C.
“I’m trying to think off the top of my head. Has anyone done it at this point in their career? A lot of guys earlier in their career have done it.”
If Escarra could pull this off, it’s believed it would be unprecedented.
Many standout players over the years have converted to switch-hitting in the minor leagues, including Hall of Famer Carlos Beltran, but very few took it up after reaching the majors and it’s believed no one has been successful.
Research found two players who tried and failed: Paul Blair in 1971 with the Orioles and Bob Dernier in 1983 with the Phillies. Both were natural right-handed hitting center fielders who quit batting from the left side quickly.
An eight-time Gold Glove winner who hit .250 over 17 seasons, Blair gave up switch-hitting less than two months into the 1971 season after batting .193 in 57 left-handed at-bats.
Known for speed on the bases and strong outfield play in 10 seasons with the Phillies and Cubs, Dernier returned to batting right-handed for good after two games and three plate appearances. Facing the Mets, he was 0-for-2 with a strikeout on Opening Day against Hall of Famer Tom Seaver and then worked a walk the next day with Craig Swan pitching.
Dernier’s failed attempt is preserved on his 1984 Topps baseball card, which pictures batting left-handed in a spring training game.
Eleven-time Gold Glove shortstop Omar Vizquel began switch-hitting at age 21 when he was in Double-A and quickly took to batting left-handed. Six months later, he was in the majors beginning a 24-year career in which he amassed 2,877 hits, sixth most among switch-hitters.
“The toughest time to me was the switch of hands,” Vizquel wrote in a text message. “The right hand always wanted to dominate even when I was on the other side of the plate and my leg was going away from the plate because I was scared in the beginning.”
Back in Kansas City, right after Rowson heard about Escarra’s switch-hitting idea, they met up at the batting cage and were seen laughing together.
“James was telling me that I hit lefties better than righties, so I don’t know,” Escarra said Wednesday. “He told me if I really wanted to do it, it would be something we’d have to work on in the offseason.”
Rowson has a point.
In a small sample, Escarra has hit far better against left-handed pitchers than right-handers. In his two seasons, he’s batting .345 in 29 at-bats against lefties and .164 in 110 versus righties.
“When you’re getting used to this league and seeing a lot of these pitchers for the first time around and then you’re not playing every day, that’s all part of it,” Rowson said. “But just the raw hitter in him, I think he has an opportunity to be really good.”
Escarra’s last start was his best game of the season, three singles in four at-bats in the Yankees’ Memorial Day win over the Royals.
“I think he’s got a good swing,” Boone said. “I think he’s got strength and power. It’s just about finding that now at this level, where obviously everyone’s usually really, really good.
“He hasn’t really had that opportunity to play regularly at this level. It was good to see him swing the bat like that, because I absolutely feel like he’s capable of that. You watch him take BP and see his power; you see his swing. So I do feel like that’s in there.”
Escarra agrees, but switch-hitting still is in the back of his mind because pulling that off could make him more valuable.
“Right now it feels weird just hitting flips,” he said. “It feels like something I’ve never done, which I haven’t, but it’s more of like really getting on it in the offseason. Try it out, maybe in winter ball, and then really make a decision to pursue it or not.
“If I can do it, it would only help my career.”
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