If there was any silver lining in the Yankees’ highly criticized 2025 season, it’s that they developed a middle-of-the-order bat for years to come.
Ben Rice went from statcast darling to a legitimate force for the Bombers. The 26-year-old slashed .255/.337/.499 with 26 homers and 65 in 138 games last season.
The slugger took a step from his rookie campaign, where he registered impressive batted ball metrics — 15.6 barrel % in 2024 — that generated some promise amongst the analytics community for a predicted breakout season that came to fruition and they’ll need another jump made in 2026.
Rice is now one of the hardest hitters in baseball as he ranked in the 95th percentile in average exit velocity and 97th in Hard-Hit%, leading to a very attractive Baseball Savant page. However, there still appears to be some room for growth for the youngster. Rice’s metrics — and even the eye test if you watched him all season hit bullets right at people — indicate a high degree of poor luck.
The left-handed hitter’s expected batting average was .290 with an expected slugging of .550 — a significant increase from his actual numbers.
The Bombers will be entrusting Statcast and other metrics to tell the story once again in 2026 for Rice, as they’ll need the slugger to take another step forward as he’ll be taking on a larger role.
For a good portion of last season, Rice was platooned with Paul Goldschmidt at first base — as the veteran was notorius for smashing left-handers — however, this season, it appears he will get more playing time against southpaws as manager Aaron Boone said at the Winter Meetings he would play “a lot” against lefties in 2026.
“We’re really proud of what Rice is and what he brings to the table,” Brian Cashman said at the Winter Meetings. “As far as I’m concerned he’s managing first base for us…but we are too left-handed, we need to find a way to balance that out.”
This was not the first time the Yankees GM had given public praise of Rice. In November, Cashman said, “I view Ben Rice as having an everyday role in the big leagues for us next year, whether it’s at first… right now the lane is first base, I have no doubt teams will continue to come after our players, Rice included, for trade conversations. But as of right now, yeah, he’s in our lineup, and the more likely spot would be first base.
“But he can catch, as well. I have [Austin] Wells is our catcher, and him at first, but, again, you never know how the winds of change blow here every winter. And they’ll be challenge trades made to us or by us, and most will lead nowhere, with one team insulting the other, vice versa. More likely than not, I see him at first base, without a doubt.”
It remains to be seen if Rice will continue his occasional catching role as he made 26 starts behind the dish as Boone got a bit creative with his catching history in order to get him into the lineup every day. However, the Bombers will need to maximize Rice’s offensive prowess, and that would come with playing first base.
The youngster still has some defensive strides to take over at first — -3 defensive runs saves and -2 fielding run value in 2025 — however, that will surely be a focus for Rice as he attempts to lock down the position for years to come at Yankee Stadium.
