Why Ben Rice's scorching Yankees start isn't a fluke

Why Ben Rice's scorching Yankees start isn't a fluke originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Last season, Ben Rice was a great player in the heart of the New York Yankees' order.

Even then, though, he was a bit unlucky. His underlying stats showed he should've had an even bigger season.

So far in 2026, it looks like the luck is evening out for Rice. He's still crushing the baseball, and in the early going, he's had immense results to show for it.

According to MLB.com's Brent Maguire, so far this season Rice ranks in the 100th percentile in baseball in expected weighted on-base average and the 100th percentile in hard-hit rate (which means he's better than everyone in baseball in those two stats), as well as in the 99th percentile in barrel rate.

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He's batting .324 with three home runs, 11 RBI and a 1.124 OPS.

Rice is 12-for-37 on the young season, with the only slight concern being his 14 strikeouts. But when he hits the ball, he crushes it.

"In many ways, Rice’s emergence to this kind of level was evident last season," Maguire writes. "The Yankees’ slugger posted an .836 OPS with 26 home runs, but the underlying numbers suggested he deserved an even better outcome -- his .394 expected wOBA was much higher than his actual .358 wOBA. Rice promptly decided to crush the ball even more in 2026, as he had a 1.183 OPS and four home runs through his first 11 games. Rice is boasting a 100th percentile xwOBA (.473) and hard-hit rate (75.0 percent), while barreling a quarter of his batted balls and showing elite plate discipline (90th percentile chase rate). He’s proven to be quite the hitter to pair with Aaron Judge in the middle of the Yankees lineup and looks like one of the best hitters in baseball."

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The Yankees have a lefty-heavy lineup, but they're going to start relying on Rice to hit against southpaws more often, too.

He had the Yanks' lone hit off A's left-hander Jeffrey Springs on Thursday. Even on a day when the rest of the Yankees' lineup didn't get a hit, Rice did. That's the kind of season he's having so far, and there's no reason to believe he'll slow down much at all.

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