With Austin Wells struggling at the plate and Ben Rice swinging an impact bat, the latter found himself serving as the Yankees’ starting catcher for the second consecutive night on Tuesday against the Twins.
Primarily a DH and first baseman at the start of the season, the Yankees only let Rice catch in blowout games earlier this year. However, the natural catcher, who mostly played first as a rookie last year after learning the position in short order, began getting starts behind the plate after Giancarlo Stanton returned from his tennis elbow injuries in June.
Now Rice is earning those opportunities. Tuesday marked his fifth catching start in the Yankees’ last seven games. Meanwhile, Wells, hitting .208/.267/.412 with 15 home runs, 56 RBI and an 84 wRC+ while posting abysmal numbers against sliders, sat for the second straight game.
“He’s going to play a massive role for us moving forward,” Boone said of Wells, adding that he will start on Wednesday.
Boone’s comment came less than 24 hours after the manager declined to discuss whether he could see Rice, a metrics darling who is slashing .235/.326/.463 with 17 homers, 38 RBI and a 120 wRC+, potentially getting the bulk of the catching reps moving forward.
“I don’t know,” Boone replied, uninterested in discussing the subject on the spot. “We’ll see.”
Ben Rice vs. Austin Wells pic.twitter.com/PBoMbyF9Ig
— Yankeesource (@YankeeSource) August 12, 2025
However, Boone was incredibly complimentary of Rice’s catching skills on Monday and Tuesday.
“I feel like he’s getting more and more comfortable back there,” the skipper said. “I’m seeing more and more of a presence and confidence and just the game sort of slowing down for him a little bit back there.
“I felt like, initially, when we started putting him in there, he was doing well and handling it, but you could see moments in the game where it would speed up. I haven’t seen that, and he’s been in some tight games too.”
Rice completely agreed with Boone’s assessment, saying his improved confidence has made him a more self-assured handler and game-caller when it comes to working with Yankees pitchers.
Those same pitchers, meanwhile, haven’t had a problem with Rice.
“Honestly, it’s like he hasn’t lost a step back there. He does a really good job game-planning,” said Will Warren, who threw to Rice in the minors and on Monday, when he totaled 6.2 innings, two earned runs, seven strikeouts and zero walks against Minnesota. “It’s like he’s been catching this whole time and never played first base. So it’s really nice throwing to him.”
One element of Rice’s catching game that has stood out is his framing.
Rice has caught 350 pitches this season. While that’s not enough to be considered a qualified catcher on Baseball Savant, he ranks ninth in Strike Rate (46.3%) and 31st in Catcher Framing Runs (1) among backstops who have caught at least 250 pitches.
For comparison, Wells ranks 17th (44.9%) in Strike Rate and fourth in Catcher Framing Runs (7).
J.C. Escarra, the Yankees’ other catcher, leads all of baseball with a 49.5% Strike Rate, and he ranks ninth with four Catcher Framing Runs.
“I’m sure once he qualifies, he’ll be up there with the best in the league,” Escarra said of Rice. “He does a good job. Me and him, we go back and forth on how we could get better working with [Yankees director of catching] Tanner [Swanson] and with Wellsy. It’s no surprise that he’s going to be one of the top framers.”
Rice has graded out well as a blocker, too. His pop time and arm strength rank near the bottom of the league over a small sample, but the Yankees value framing more than anything else when it comes to their catchers.
While Rice still has room for improvement, it is not a surprise to see him getting rave receiving reviews.
Earlier this season, Swanson said Rice could be the starting catcher for at least 10 teams. Rice has put in diligent work at the position since spring training, regularly attending pitchers meetings, catching bullpen sessions and going through daily drills well before the Yankees ever planned on starting him.
“I just wanted to keep that tool sharp the whole time,” Rice said. “Because at some point, Big G was going to come back, and I wanted to be as flexible as I possibly could for Boone.”
But Rice also pointed out that he’s always been a catcher. That he’s holding his own back there shouldn’t be a shock.
“It’s my natural position,” Rice noted. “I’ve done it my whole life.”
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