PITTSBURGH — Austin Wells has an eggs-cellent backup plan if the whole catching thing does not work out.
The Yankees backstop has entered the food influencer space, creating an Instagram account to rank breakfast burritos served in visiting clubhouses around the league.
Wells made the account — named simply, “wells.ranked.burritos” — on Friday morning at PNC Park, thinking it would be something of a joke that his teammates might follow.
Nearly 48 hours later, he had more than 56,000 followers as of Sunday afternoon.
“Now it’s not a small thing anymore,” Wells deadpanned. “Now I feel pressure to post. There’s no going back.”
It is a labor of love for Wells in his second full season in the big leagues.
“I really love a chorizo burrito,” Wells said. “A little crisp on the tortilla, a lot of eggs. Kind of simple, but good flavor.”
Wells is using a scoring system out of 100 and has ranked two burritos so far: a chorizo, egg, salsa and cheese burrito that scored an 87 on Friday and a garlic and guajillo chili steak, egg, salsa and cheese burrito that scored a 73 on Sunday.
“I just wanted to be different,” Wells said. “I feel like everyone uses a 1 out of 10 and I didn’t want to be like everybody else. I wanted to be different.”
Manager Aaron Boone is all for the burrito content and consumption, though he prefers a different scoring system.
“We tend to rank things from the coaching staff more on the scouting scale, the 20-80 scale,” Boone said. “I’ve been pleased with the breakfast burritos here. The first day, I threw out a 60, which is a fringey All-Star, everyday guy. Threw out another 60 for today’s. I only went with half because I’m playing for the tie on this trip from a calorie intake standpoint.”
Wells’ only problem? He may have a turf war on his hands, with YES play-by-play man Michael Kay unveiling a rival “kay_eats_tendies” account in which he ranks ballpark chicken tenders.
“I mean, he has a way better profile picture than me,” Wells said, referring to a photoshopped Kay morphed into a chicken tender. “So I’m going to have to maybe talk to AI or something and have them make me one. I’m a little worried, we’ll see how it goes.”
