Yankees’ J.C. Escarra reflects on making major-league roster

TAMPA, Fla. — J.C. Escarra, the Uber driver turned Yankees catcher, admitted on Sunday that he thought it was time to “hang it all up” when he was scuffling in independent ball.

Now? When Escarra gets to Yankee Stadium for Thursday’s season opener, he’s going to see something hanging up: a crisp pinstriped uniform in his very own big-league locker.

Escarra’s journey from Uber driver to major leaguer became complete on Saturday when Yankees manager Aaron Boone informed the 29-year-old catcher that he had made his first big-league roster.

First, though, Boone had some fun, pretending he was calling Escarra into his Steinbrenner Field office to tell him he hadn’t made the team.

Just as he did with Anthony Volpe three spring trainings ago, Boone played the scene out as long as he could while the Yankees videoed the exchange using a hidden camera. They later posted it on social media.

A beaming Escarra, in the Yankees clubhouse on Sunday morning, said: “I was expecting some good news, obviously. But he really got me at first.”

After he got the real news, Escarra called his mother. The Yankees videotaped that, too, and posted it on social media.

There was screaming, there was crying, and there was pure joy.

“We did it,” a teary-eyed Escarra told his mother in the video.

On Sunday, Escarra said: “I don’t really even cry that much. I knew she was going to get like that. But it’s just a special moment. Special moment of what I’ve been through, because she went through it with me as well. So it’s a whole family dream come true.”

As if the news couldn’t get any better, the Yankees happen to be playing their final exhibition game on Tuesday in Miami.

Escarra’s friends and family will be helping the Marlins fill LoanDepot Park, and he said more than 10 of his friends and family have already booked their flights to New York for Thursday’s Opening Day against Milwaukee.

Escarra’s journey from a first baseman who was released by the Orioles in 2022 to Austin Wells’ backup catcher with the Yankees three years later included a four-month stint doing odd jobs in his hometown of Miami during the 2022 offseason. Driving for Uber was one of them.

The Yankees signed Escarra out of the independent Atlantic League in 2024. The lefthanded hitter is batting .333 with three home runs this spring training.

It’s quite the story when you realize where Escarra was before he signed with the Yankees. The thought of giving up crossed his mind more than once.

“How can I [not] when I was making $40 every two weeks in indie ball?” said Escarra, who on Sunday was named the James P. Dawson award winner as the Yankees’ top rookie in spring training. “Playing overseas, playing winter ball, having all the odd jobs just to provide for my family. There was a time that I was going to hang it all up. I believed it was time to move on and see what’s next. But I’m glad I didn’t.”

Escarra and his wife are also expecting their first child, a son, in June. So it’s certainly been one crazy ride for the former Uber driver turned major leaguer.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I can’t even express it. Me and my wife have actually been trying for a long time. So it’s a miracle in itself, having my first-born, but we’re excited. I’m excited to be a father for the first time, and hopefully it gives me a little bit more juice on the field.”