Yankees pundit explains why Austin Wells shouldn’t catch for Carlos Rodon

The New York Yankees have lost their grip on first place in the AL East after a difficult week. The team, which started the season strong, has struggled recently and endured its toughest stretch of the year.

Their most recent loss came against cross-city rivals the New York Mets, who beat them 12-6 on Saturday. Even Carlos Rodon, who has been one of the consistent arms for skipper Aaron Boone to call upon, looked far from his best, giving up six earned runs in five innings.

Assessing Rodon's performance, Yankees pundit Hector Beauchamp explored the interesting angle of how Rodon seems to perform better when J.C. Escarra is catching for him instead of Austin Wells.

"When you look at the numbers, you can split Carlos Rodon's season in two, one when J.C. Escarra is behind the plate, and he's his catcher, and the other one when Austin Wells is behind the plate," Beauchamp said on Saturday, according to New York Post Sports (Timestamp: 5:32).

"When Austin Wells is there, Carlos Rodon's ERA is well over 4.50. When he has J.C. Escarra behind the plate, I don't know what it is, I don't know if it's their communication, but when the two Cubans are together, Carlos Rodon's ERA is under 3.00."

Further, Beauchamp talked about how he is frustrated that the Yankees' analytics department has seemingly not yet picked up on this trend.

"This is what gets me frustrated when it comes to the analytics," Beauchamp said (Timestamp: 5:20). "We've heard it from Brian Cashman, we've heard it from Aaron Boone, that this team relies heavily on the analytics.

"If they are still going with Austin Wells with Carlos Rodon, that's what frustrates me, because this team loves to preach how they have one of the best analytics departments out there."

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Carlos Rodon speaks after tough outing against Mets leads to Yankees' sixth consecutive loss

Yankees fans hoped Carlos Rodon would deliver a solid performance on Saturday, like he usually has when called upon this year.

But he was unable to do so, and the Yankees lost their sixth game in a row. Reflecting on a tough day on the mound post-game, Rodon spoke to Greg Joyce of the New York Post.

"[I had] a lot of misses today, and they punished them," Rodon said. "Obviously, we fell short again, and the performance by me was very subpar, so [I] didn’t put us in position to win. I should have been better at my craft, but today, I just wasn’t good enough."

Carlos Rodon in action - Source: Getty

Having already lost the three-game series after dropping games one and two, fans will be hoping the Bronx Bombers can at least restore some pride, and more importantly, put an end to this losing streak they find themselves in, when ace Max Fried takes the mound in the series finale on Sunday.