Ben Rice can hit.
This was rarely a question for Rice, who broke out offensively in 2022 as a 23-year-old catcher in A ball. After climbing three levels in 2023 and another two in 2024, Rice made his Major League debut in mid-June 2024, taking over for an injured Anthony Rizzo at first base despite catching throughout his minor league career.
Things didn’t work out great in 2024, with Rice finishing the season back in the minors and the Yankees acquiring veteran first baseman Paul Goldschmidt in the offseason, seemingly leaving Rice out of the picture.
This has clearly not been the case thus far in 2025; regardless, Rice has overcome quite a lot to get to this point and has earned his shot to continue mashing in the Major Leagues.
2024
Rice quickly made an impact offensively, posting a .972 OPS through early July after a three-homer game against the Red Sox. Rice, however, hit a rough skid over his final 34 games, finishing with a .171/.264/.349 triple slash after an August demotion to AAA.
Still, there was a lot to like. Despite a 32.5% K rate, up from ~20% in the minors that season, Rice posted a 15.6% barrel rate and .462 xSLG, all while boasting elite plate discipline (20.6 Chase%, 11.2 BB%).
This led Rice to become a popular breakout pick, earning impressive preseason projections across the board.
2025
Entering 2025, Rice still had much to prove, highlighted by the Yankees’ signing of Paul Goldschmidt to a one-year deal. As first base has been a position of inconsistency for the Yankees for years, it was a smart signing, yet it forced Rice to show out in Spring Training to earn a Major League job. Fortunately, he did.
Along with a .835 OPS, improved strikeout numbers, and five home runs in just 62 at-bats, Rice led all Spring Training batters (min 30 PA) with a 97.4 mph average EV. While it was just Spring Training, this would’ve been higher than Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani in 2024.
After a major injury to Giancarlo Stanton, Rice was all but handed the DH position, appearing a handful of times at first base as well in the early weeks of the season. This has led to an outstanding start to the season for Rice, boasting a .298/.411/.638 triple slash through his first 14 games, along with one of the most impressive Savant pages in baseball:
- Data via Baseball Savant
Rice certainly hit in the minors, but not to this extent. He attributed it to a number of changes, but included gaining around 15 pounds of muscle as a key factor, which seems fair enough.
While these stats tend to take longer than two weeks to regulate, it’s certainly a good sign. Rice has not only improved upon his strengths of last season but is doing so without sacrificing other factors of his game.
Like many lefties, Rice has always struggled against southpaws on the mound. While he has been about league average against them this season, it’s certainly something to consider long-term.
A similar issue that frequently presented itself in 2024 for Rice was hitting inside pitches hard, particularly up-and-in:
To seemingly counter this, Rice has opened his stance 17 degrees, going from an almost neutral stance to a largely open position. This has led to Rice having no problem getting to inside pitches thus far, although pitchers will almost certainly adjust as the season progresses.
Rice has also seen a remarkably low number of high fastballs thus far in 2025 – while his improved bat speed and limited prior struggles against such fastballs are good signs, pitchers will eventually use this part of the zone more frequently.
Overall, a few takeaways are worth considering when looking at Rice’s early success; the season is young, pitchers tend to adjust, and yet Rice still rakes. There’s far more to be excited about than concerned when it comes to Rice’s game, and while I wouldn’t invest in these elite numbers sustaining over a full season, he is certainly worth a roster spot as one of the more exciting hitters in baseball.
What happens when Stanton returns?
I don’t think they’re benching their leadoff hitter vs righties, should that continue to be the case. He came up as a catcher, he’s taking side reps there, and Boone has said he’ll get game reps there, so that seems like a place some of the AB’s will come from when Stanton returns, if he returns. If he returns, he’ll probably go back to the IL before long anyway. (He only missed a month last year, so he has to catch up and hit this season’s quota as well. This “both my elbows are broken,” thing has a very Ellsbury ring to it.)