Should Yankees’ Ben Rice be catching? Here is scout’s strong opinion

NEW YORK — The first question in Aaron Boone’s Tuesday pre-game news conference was an obvious one with first baseman Ben Rice, the Yankees’ hottest hitter, out of the lineup for the second night in a row.

Just like the previous three times the Yankees faced a left-handed starting pitcher, Paul Goldschmidt, a right-handed hitter, started over Rice, a lefty who is first in the American League in OPS, third in hitting, seventh in RBI and 10th in homers.

Explaining his decision, Boone said Goldschmidt’s “superpower” at age 38 is hitting left-handed pitching. He mentioned Rice coming off the bench to get five at-bats over the previous two games that the Yankees faced a lefty.

What about starting Rice at catcher?

“I’m not ready to catch Benny,” the manager said before the Yankees’ 7-1 loss to the Angels. “I would put him in a game, but I’m not ready to go five, seven, whatever innings with him yet.”

Rice, who drove in the Yankees’ only run Tuesday with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the eighth inning, is a natural catcher who made 24 starts behind the plate last season.

For Wednesday’s game against the Angels, Yankees -1.5 run line is listed at +104 on FanDuel. Our complete FanDuel Sportsbook review makes it easy to figure out how to navigate their site.

Also, Rice’s .273 average facing left-handers this year, three hits in 11 at-bats, is second best on the Yankees, whose .147 batting average and .485 OPS against lefties is by far the worst in the majors.

Starting catcher Austin Wells, who also hits lefty, is 2-for-17 counting his 1-for-3 Tuesday against Angels lefty starter Reid Detmers. Backup catcher J.C. Escarra also hits left-handed, but all 12 of his plate appearances have been against righties.

Goldschmidt, by the way, is hitting .182 in 11 at-bats against lefties after raking at a .336 clip in 2025.

Pressed about Rice’s catching, Boone said it could play out like it did last year. In 2025, Rice’s first full season, he caught one inning in April, 3.2 over three mop-ups in May and then beginning in mid-June was in the lineup for the first of 24 starts.

So far this season, Wells has started 14 of the Yankees’ first 17 games with Escarra behind the plate for the other three.

In spring training, Rice’s game action at catcher was limited to one inning because the Yankees wanted him focusing on improving his defense at first base, a position he didn’t play a lot until last year.

He’s been catching bullpens and live BPs since spring training, however. In fact, he was the receiver for rehabbing left-hander Carlos Rodon’s 52-pitch live BP on Monday.

“I feel like we’ll get there (with Rice catching), but we want to keep the focus on a lot of his first base work, as well,” Boone said.

What should the Yankees do?

They’ve admitted Wells and Escarra are better receivers, but Boone thinks Rice has some solid catching skills.

On Tuesday, Boone admitted that he gets tempted to work Rice into the catching plans to keep his bat in the lineup when Goldschmidt is at first.

But is Rice catching a good idea or not?

NJ.com went to a veteran MLB scout who saw a lot of Rice behind the plate last season for some expertise.

The scout, who was granted anonymity because he’s not permitted by his club to publicly speak about opposing players, has a strong opinion:

“I absolutely love Rice’s bat, but you can’t sacrifice pitching for his bat,” the scout said. “He’s a project catching. The footwork is bad. The arm isn’t good. His transition is slow. He’s below average at catcher.

“The Yankees can say what they want about Rice’s catching. They can say they saw improvement last year, but I think he’s too much of a liability back there.”

Baseball Savant’s analytics support the scout’s take.

Here are some numbers:

• In framing, Wells was third best among 57 qualifying catchers with a plus-12 ranking, Escarra was a plus-5 and Rice was a minus-1.
• In arm-strength rankings, Escarra was 55th among 101 catchers averaging 79 mph, Wells was 67th at 77.9 mph and Rice was 91st at 74.9 mph.
• In exchange-time rankings, which computes how long it takes to receive the pitch and get off a throw, Wells tied for 49th among 101 catchers at .65 seconds, Escarra tied for 62nd at .68 seconds and Rice was tied for 67th at .68 seconds.
• In blocking, Wells was tied for 34th among 116 listed catchers with a plus-1 ranking while Rice and Escarra were tied for 78th at minus-2.

“I feel like Benny is really good at a lot of things at the catching position,” Boone said. “I think last year he demonstrated an ability from calling a game and game planning and gaining the trust of a lot of our staff.

“It’s not as traditional, but he’s a very good receiver. He’s a solid blocker. He continues to work on the throwing part of things.

“But I want to be smart, too, with how we do it back there and when we do it just because how valuable he is and what we see him becoming as an offensive player.”

This is not an easy call. There’s a lot more to catching than playing first base. You have to study opposing hitters. You have to know all of your pitchers. Also, you get banged up catching, especially on foul tips.

“It’s still a very all-encompassing position that demands a lot,” Boone said.

This extra responsibility didn’t affect Rice last year, the Yankees say, but his hitting has soared to a higher level this season. Boone doesn’t want to mess with that.

“I think he really handled that well last year, and that was what was really encouraging about last year,” Boone said. “Last year I had trepidation about it, and as we slowly integrated him, I thought as the season went along you felt really good about the days he was back there for different reasons.

“So we’ll see how it unfolds.”

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