Payton Henry now on RailRiders’ side of rivalry with Lehigh Valley

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders catcher Payton Henry has had this week circled on the schedule for a while.

For the first time this season, the RailRiders face the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. They opened a six-game series Tuesday night at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pa., with a 15-4 victory. Henry played for Lehigh Valley last season. Now, he is on the other side of the intrastate rivalry.

“It’s going to be fun. I still have a lot of buddies over there,” Henry said. “Lot of the coaching staff is the same, lot of the players are the same, some guys I made some really good relationships with. It’s going to be fun. That park is a good park, they bring people there and people love showing up. I think it’s a really fun place to play whether you’re at home or visiting.

“It’s a great place, I appreciated my time with them. It’ll be fun. I know they’ve got a pretty good team and obviously we have a really good team. I think it will be a good time.”

Because of the New York Yankees’ rivalry with the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets, people try to make it a big deal when the RailRiders play the Worcester Red Sox or Syracuse Mets. However, Lehigh Valley is the RailRiders’ true rival. They are separated by just 76 miles. The winner of the season series brings home the IronRail Trophy. Plus, from 1989 to 2006, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was home to the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate in the form of the Red Barons.

“For this area, I know it’s a big deal when we play each other,” Henry said. “Being on the other side, this team whooped our butts last year a few times. We kind of went back and forth. Hopefully, we can take the cake (this year) and play some good ball. It’s exciting for people around here. It makes it kind of cool and gives us a little more edge to play with.”

Last season, Henry was a bit of a thorn for the RailRiders. He had 11 home runs and 47 RBI for the IronPigs, but five of those home runs and 15 RBI came against the RailRiders, including two home runs on Opening Day in a 5-4 Lehigh Valley win. He also is the last opponent to hit a grand slam against the RailRiders.

“Oh yeah, everybody’s talked to me about it,” Henry said. “I loved it last year. Now I’m the bad guy all of the sudden. Hopefully we can go over there and get some wins from them and do some good things against them, too. But I’ve been talked to about it a few times. It’s all in good fun.”

The Yankees are the fifth organization for which Henry has played. He was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the sixth round in 2016 (171st overall) out of Pleasant Grove High School in Utah. He’s also played in the minors for affiliates of the Miami Marlins, Toronto Blue Jays, and Phillies. He does have 20 games of major league experience with the Marlins in 2021 and 2022. He made his MLB debut on Sept. 17, 2021, against the Pittsburgh Pirates and got his first hit in his second at-bat — a double off Wil Crowe leading off the bottom of the fifth.

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Henry was signed as a free agent by the Yankees in December. In 27 games with the RailRiders this season, he is batting .265 (22-for-83) with four doubles, four home runs and 12 RBI. He and Ali Sánchez have split the catching duties, both sitting in the wings in case of a need at the big-league level should Austin Wells or J.C. Escarra miss time with an injury — especially because it sounds like the Yankees are playing it safe with Ben Rice’s sensational bat and keeping him away from catcher.

“Payton’s been doing an amazing job receiving, throwing,” RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan said. “He started off slow, but has been picking it up. He’s been a good presence at the plate.

“We’re very lucky here. We’ve got two catchers that are big-league catchers and it’s a privilege to watch them.”

Sharing time with another catcher is nothing new for Henry. He said he’s done it the last four years with other organizations and is comfortable with it.

“I think that’s how minor league baseball has gone, especially Triple-A. You’re going to split time with another guy and Ali’s awesome,” Henry said. “Obviously you want to play every day and be in the lineup every day. That’s just not how it works some times. But it’s been great here, I like it. The coaching staff have been super helpful, we’ve got a good group of guys. That ultimately takes the cake on everything. When you have good teammates and the clubhouse has good energy, it makes it easy to show up every day.”

Being with the RailRiders has enabled Henry to catch the Yankees’ top pitching prospects: No. 2 Elmer Rodriguez, No. 4 Carlos Lagrange and No. 21 Brendan Beck.

“They’ve done great so far. It’s electric stuff,” Henry said. “You’ve got Brendan who can pinpoint the ball wherever he wants. Carlos throws the ball a million miles per hour it seems like. Elmer’s just dicing people left and right. So it’s been really fun. Just kind of watching them grow, kind of being an older guy in this setting, watching them have their successes and have their failures and see the way they deal with it, they’re doing a really good job with it. I’m happy for them.”

Speaking of Beck, he was named the International League Pitcher of the Week for the period of May 11th-17th.

Beck was honored for his performance May 13th against the Syracuse Mets at PNC Field. The right-hander allowed one hit in 5.2 shutout innings with one walk and matched his season high with nine strikeouts in a 7-0 win. He threw 80 pitches, 58 for strikes.

In nine starts this season, Beck is 3-2 with a 4.63 ERA. He has walked only 10 and struck out 51 in 46.2 innings. He is tied for fifth in the International League in strikeouts.

He made his MLB debut with the Yankees on May 7th against the Texas Rangers at Yankee Stadium. He came on after opener Paul Blackburn and pitched three innings, allowing two runs on two hits — one home run — with three walks and one strikeout. The Yankees won, 9-2.

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“I was super happy for Brendan the way that he was able to go up and have a pretty good outing,” Henry said. “Anytime you see teammates succeed and go up and do their thing it’s really cool.”

The last RailRiders pitcher to win the IL’s weekly award was Erick Leal last season for the period of July 29-August 3rd.

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