A baseball catcher holds a key strategic role in the game. The catcher acts as the “field general” or “quarterback” of the defense, responsible for calling pitches, framing strikes, blocking balls, throwing out baserunners, and managing the pitcher’s performance. Positioned behind home plate, he controls the game’s pace, aligns the infield, and offers leadership.
Team DR managers, Nelson Cruz and Adrian Beltre have chosen Austin Wells to be the catcher of the Dominican Dream Team to the World Baseball Classic. The 2026 World Baseball Classic is an international professional baseball tournament between 20 national baseball teams, planned to be the sixth iteration of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), and to be played from 5 to 17 March 2026.
Austin Wells was recently confirmed to be one of the assigned team catchers. The 26-year-old was born in Arizona. His claim to Dominican citizenship is through his mother. He qualified to play for the DR because both his maternal grandparents were born in the Dominican Republic.
Latino Sports reports that Wells is considered one of the best defensive catchers in MLB, rated as the fifth-best defensive catcher on Fangraphs in 2025. His progress as a catcher has been steady as he just began playing in the MLB in September 2023 when he was added to the New York Yankees roster. Likewise, he has shown good batting power for a catcher with 21 home runs last season.
Wells is hardly known to Dominican fans. Yet, ESPN points out that his connection to Dominican baseball goes years back, even before he made it to the MLB. He was drafted in 2021 to play with the Leones del Escogido during the Lidom Professional Winter Baseball Championship. Because of his non-Latin name, few knew he had Dominican roots. It was only recently that he was cleared to play for the DR based on his Dominican roots through his maternal grandparents.
Wells is new to the Dominican WBC team, but he is also new to MLB. He was signed as a New York Yankee in 2023, where he probably befriended Juan Soto, who played for that team. Juan Soto played one season for the New York Yankees in 2024 before signing with the New York Mets. Soto is also on the Dominican team for the WBC.
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16 February 2026