BRONX, NY — JC Escarra was not too proud to take any odd job he could to make ends meet.
Once a first baseman in the Baltimore Orioles system, he found himself in independent ball trying to catch on as a catcher — a position he had never played before. From the Atlantic League to Mexico, to Puerto Rico, his $400 every two weeks from playing ball wasn’t going to cover his mortgage. By 2023, he was substitute teaching at Doral Academy High School in Florida and driving an Uber in an attempt to do everything he could to keep his baseball career alive.
“I remember [Doral Academy] had a baseball player that was going to go first round, second round, Adrian Santana was his name,” Escarra remembered. “So it was full of scouts coming to watch him, and since I was there already, I would go one by one to these scouts: ‘Hey, if you need a left-handed catcher, I’m your guy.’
“None of those guys ended up signing me, but I’m sure they would have now.”
Escarra took the quick trip down memory lane from the New York Yankees’ media room just hours before Opening Day on Thursday afternoon, where he will begin the season as the club’s backup catcher behind Austin Wells.
“There was a time in my life that, I thought I wasn’t going to be playing baseball no more,” Escarra said. “To wake up this morning as a major league baseball player, especially for the New York Yankees, it means the world to me.”
The Yankees took a flier on Escarra last year, signing him to a minor-league deal. Following a stint in Double-A, he was promoted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre where he batted .302 with a .930 OPS, eight home runs, and 34 RBI in 52 games.
Following spring training, where he batted .302 with an .849 OPS, three home runs, and eight RBI in 19 exhibition games, he was named to the Opening Day roster. Videos of manager Aaron Boone breaking the news to him, and then him breaking down on the phone with his mother have now gone viral.
It’s a moment to celebrate with his entire family. His wife took on three jobs two years ago to ensure that he could continue his journey in professional baseball. His father arrived in the United States from Cuba and settled in Yonkers, where he lived for 15 years while developing into a rabid Yankees fan before moving down to Hialeah, FL.
There, Escarra grew up alongside his good friend and ex-Yankee starting pitcher Nestor Cortes, who is in town with the Milwaukee Brewers to enjoy the moment. He will pitch on Saturday.
“It just makes it that much sweeter,” Escarra said. “Just all the sacrifices that not only me, but my family, had to go through… Everything [my wife] had to do when I got released by the other teams, who was there when I got home with open arms? My mom and my dad. That’s why it means so much to me and my family to be in this position right now…
“I told [Cortes] ‘Man, if I face you, you better throw me at least one fastball. Hopefully, I do. It’ll be a cool moment.”
To make this full-circle moment feel all the more real, it was only fitting that the former Uber driver had an Uber black luxury vehicle waiting to pick him up from his downtown Manhattan hotel to take him to Yankee Stadium on Thursday morning. It was a perfect opportunity to think about just how far he has come in just two years.
“When I was driving the Uber, I had no idea the people that were getting in my car,” Escarra said. “I was just thinking about whoever the driver was, he has a Major League Baseball player for the New York Yankees sitting in his car… [It’s a] very real job. During that time I was taking all these odd jobs, I was doing it because I had a mortgage to provide for my family and I was in some sort retired until that door opened.
“I was just trying to find each way to make things happen and who knows what I’d be doing right now if it wasn’t for baseball? I’m not sure if I’d be Ubering or substitute teaching. But who knows? Maybe I would’ve been a teacher or a realtor.”
He does not have to worry about that any time soon, because for now, he’s a big-league catcher with the Bronx Bombers.
