![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/STT-L-ESCARRA-01.jpg\")
This is a 2025 photo of J.C. Escarra of the New York Yankees baseball team Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. This image reflects the Yankees active roster as of Feb. 18, 2025, when the photo was taken. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)<\/p>\nThis is a 2025 photo of J.C. Escarra of the New York Yankees baseball team Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. This image reflects the Yankees active roster as of Feb. 18, 2025, when the photo was taken. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)<\/p>\n
By Holden Mostofsky<\/p>\n
Staff writer<\/p>\n
J.C. Escarra knows this road well. He\u2019s traveled it before.<\/p>\n
After being released by the Baltimore Orioles in 2022 and kicking around in a few foreign leagues, he almost retired from baseball.<\/p>\n
He worked as an Uber driver, a floor installer and a substitute teacher.<\/p>\n
Then, the New York Yankees called.<\/p>\n
He signed a minor league contract with the organization in 2024 and split time between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre.<\/p>\n
In March of 2025, the Hialeah, Fla. native made his major league debut with the Yankees. But come July, he was optioned to Triple-A, batting .300 in 30 games with the RailRiders.<\/p>\n
Much like last season, Escarra made the Yankees roster ahead of the 2026 season, but struggled offensively, batting just .177 (11 for 62) before being optioned to Triple-A on June 23.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been just over two weeks since he was sent down to Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre from New York, but the 31-year-old catcher is starting to find his groove at Triple-A. Entering Tuesday, he was batting .294 (5 for 17) with a double and a home run in five games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last two weeks, he\u2019s been riding a little roller coaster, being sent back down in the roster,\u201d RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan said. \u201cHe\u2019s shaking off some rust right now, offensively and defensively, but the impact is still big.\u201d<\/p>\n
The selfless veteran knows his role on the team and what it will take to get back to the big leagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to just get at-bats and keep doing my thing behind the plate and working well with the pitching staff,\u201d Escarra said. \u201cFirst and foremost, I think as a catcher, that\u2019s my number one job, is to get comfortable seeing pitches and believe in myself hitting-wise to get back to the hitter that I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duncan said he has been impressed by Escarra for a while now.<\/p>\n
\u201cJ.C. is a really good baseball player,\u201d he said. \u201cI got a chance to see him for a couple of years now. He can hit, he can catch, throw, do all the little things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing is his ability to call a game and control the pitching staff. He has an energy boost to him and has great intensity behind the plate. He\u2019s got an IQ that we\u2019ve seen on the field, and his ability to throw runners out is tremendous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Escarra was originally selected in the 32nd round of the 2013 MLB Draft by the New York Mets, but decided to play at Florida Atlantic University. In 2017, he was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 15th round of the MLB Draft.<\/p>\n
At 31, Escarra is not a prospect, but he is a reliable option behind the plate. Now, if he can get his bat going, he can give the Yankees another option in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got a couple of hits today, got a big one yesterday, and offensively he had three hits, but when you see him going, it\u2019s a lot of fun,\u201d Duncan said after the July 1 game. \u201cI know that day is going to come, and I look forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is a 2025 photo of J.C. Escarra of the New York Yankees baseball team Tuesday, Feb. 18,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[51447,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-237903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-rail-riders","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}