Yankees 1B Ben Rice, Budding Superstar Or Merely An Elite Platoon Bat?

New York Yankees' Ben Rice hits a single during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Thursday, April 9, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

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Before stumbling against the Athletics this weekend, the New York Yankees were off to a strong start. The vast majority of their high octane offense, however, is out of the gate pretty slowly- it has been left to young 1B Ben Rice to shoulder the load.

The 27-year-old converted catcher was never considered a can’t miss prospect. A 12th round draftee in 2021 out of Dartmouth - not exactly a baseball hotbed - he put himself on the prospect map during the 2023 season. Each year, I compile a list of top minor league position player prospects based on performance relative to league and level, adjusted for age. It’s a purely statistically based list, with no adjustments for park, position or any other contextual factor. Rice did well on my list (#81 and #76 in 2023 and 2024), but didn’t jump off of the page. The fact that he was a catcher did make him stand out a bit, however.

Rice’s first MLB opportunity in 2024 didn’t exactly go well. 178 plate appearances, largely overmatched, with his seven homers about the only bright spot. Last year, however, he was a revelation, batting .255-.337-.499 with 26 homers in 530 plate appearances, splitting his time among first base, catcher and designated hitter.

While those are impressive surface numbers for a first year regular, they look even better once you peel back a couple of layers. His 18.9% strikeout rate was over a half standard deviation lower than league average, pretty solid for a power hitter. Not only was his overall average exit speed (93.2 mph) over a full standard deviation higher than league average, his average exit speeds across all batted ball types were over a full standard deviation higher (95.5 mph fly ball, 98.7 mph line drive and 89.7 mph ground ball).

But there’s more. Perhaps his most impressive feat was posting a pop up rate over a half standard deviation below league average (3.0%) while recording a fly ball rate near the top of the league average range (38.2%). I’ve conjured up a stat called “bad fly ball rate”. It’s the percentage of fly balls with launch angles from 35-50 degrees - virtually all fly ball damage is done between 20-35 degrees. Rice’s bad fly percentage was 28.0% in 2025 - over a full standard deviation lower than league average. Not only did he minimize pop ups - he minimized bad fly balls. As good as Rice was in 2025, he should have been even better - my “Tru” Production metric pegged him at 153, well above his actual 133 wRC+ mark. I was expecting big things from Rice entering the 2026 season.

And boy oh boy has he delivered in an admittedly small sample. Through Friday’s games, he had hit just one pop up so far - versus 10 fly balls. Of those 10 fly balls, eight have been hit at over 100 mph, four over 105 mph. That’s just filthy. He’s only hit three liners so far, but I’m nit-picking now. While he’s hit 10 grounders to date, he’s hit them harder than last year (91.2 mph). He’s also hit his flies (101.3 mph) and liners (102.0 mph) harder, up there in the Aaron Judge zone. His overall average exit speed is also obviously up, to 96.7 mph. While his K rate is way up (to 28.6%), his BB rate has exploded to 22.4% - his K/BB profile is greatly improved. He’s now a 1B/DH - it looks like his catching days are behind him.

There is one negative remaining facet to Rice’s overall offensive profile - his ability to hit lefthanded pitching. Let’s face it - this isn’t unique to Rice. Many really good lefthanded hitters struggled versus southpaws early in their career. Some figured it out, some didn’t. Many remained Joc Pederson-esque dangerous platoon players, others maxed out their potential, becoming at or near Hall of Fame level players.

I think back to Bobby Abreu when he was a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. He didn’t hit his first career homer against lefthanded pitching until he was about 1500 plate appearances into his MLB career, in 2000. He never dominated lefties, but went on to hold his own against them, and is now a legit Hall of Fame candidate.

Now Rice is a totally different type of lefty bat than Abreu. He’s a career .191-.272-.401 hitter vs. LHP, but has hit eight homers in 174 career plate appearances, through Friday’s games. Abreu was scratching and clawing and getting his base hits vs. lefties, and grew into the power. That’s the preferred way of going about things - hit before power. Rice is going the power before hit route, with a lower guarantee of success, but incredible upside if he gets there.

But the Yankees must give him the regular reps versus lefties for him to do so. Paul Goldschmidt, a future Hall of Famer in his own right, has been getting some of those at bats Rice desperately needs. It’s going to be a balancing act moving forward, but Ben Rice needs to play just about every day to become the club’s second true Bash Brother alongside Judge.

It’s scary to think about it, but the following is a true statement that I have a great deal of confidence in making - Rice has a better than even chance of becoming Maris to Judge’s Mantle, and it could be happening as we speak.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com