Mets were behind the J.C. Escarra change that led to unlikely Yankees chance

By Mark W. Sanchez

May 19, 2025 | 9:49am ET

The story of J.C. Escarra is a well-told tale of resilience — flaming out as an infielder in the Orioles system, bouncing from independent league teams in the United States and Mexico while determined to prove himself and reinvent himself as a catcher, which he did and which caught the Yankees’ eye.

There is an alternate universe, though, in which Escarra enjoys a smoother path to the big leagues. That path would have led to Queens.

Because the breakthrough that brought Escarra back to relevance, back to affiliated baseball, remarkably to the Yankees and unthinkably to the major leagues — the Mets saw it first.

Back in 2013, Escarra was a third baseman and senior at Mater Academy Charter School in Hialeah, Fla., who was convinced he was an infielder until he began talking with Mike Silvestri, then a scout with the Mets.

“What stood out with J.C. was, it was a left-handed bat. It was a good durable frame. I liked the hands. I liked the feet,” Silvestri said over the phone this weekend. “I just didn’t see, for him as a third baseman … that 20-plus, 30-plus-type home run power with the type of swing that he had. Really what he was doing, at high school at least, he was a bat-to-ball guy.”

Silvestri believed he had the physical abilities to get behind the plate and a bat that would play better as a catcher than a corner infielder. He wanted to be sure, though — and he wanted to do so without alerting any other team that the Mets viewed the teenage prospect as a catcher.

So after Escarra’s high school season was over, Silvestri brought him to an indoor batting cage about a half-hour from Escarra’s home under the cover of darkness, opting for the night and opting for the decent distance away in an effort to ensure privacy.

The first time Escarra wore catching equipment, it contained Mets logos. Silvestri put him through drills, watching him catch and block balls.

“For me, there was an immediate feel that this guy can do this,” said Silvestri, now an international cross checker for the Giants.

He was sold, and he had enough sway that the Mets selected Escarra in the 32nd round of a draft in which they grabbed Dominic Smith in the first round, Luis Guillorme in the 10th and Jeff McNeil in the 12th.

He did not have enough sway to raise the Mets offer.

In those days, teams could offer players selected after the 10th round up to $100,000 without it counting against the bonus pool.

“There was some logistics involved, but at the end of the day, the number that J.C. would have signed for, I was more than comfortable to do,” said Silvestri, who was then a part of an organization owned by the Wilpons. “The decision up top was that we weren’t going to sign him. It happens.”

“The money wasn’t great,” Escarra said, and the money often needs to be at least solid to lure a high schooler away from a college commitment.

Instead he went to Florida International to play for Henry “Turtle” Thomas, both a catching guru and a friend of Silvestri, who told Thomas to try him at catcher. Escarra caught some and played first base in college before the Orioles made him a 15th-round pick in 2017 and essentially told him to hang up his catching equipment. In April 2022 he was released (although the infield experience could pay off eventually, Escarra taking ground balls at third base, a position of need, before Sunday’s series finale against the Mets).

After he was cut, he began working for Uber to make ends meet and re-dedicated himself to catching to climb back to organized ball.

There are worlds in which Escarra rose through the Mets system, perhaps teamed with Tomás Nido or James McCann or Francisco Alvarez and made his home Citi Field rather than Yankee Stadium.

Instead, he went the scenic route and appreciated the people he met along the way. Upon making the Yankees out of camp, he texted Silvestri.

“I just told him the news and, like, look at me now,” Escarra said. “He was the first one that saw that in me, to become a catcher.”

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