BALTIMORE — With the Yankees beating up on the Blue Jays in Game 1 of a doubleheader on April 27, Ben Rice caught for the first time this season.
Rice started that game as the Yankees’ DH, but he took over receiving duties in the ninth inning with his team up 11-1. While Rice is a natural catcher, it was just his second big league inning with gear on.
Rice’s other frame came last season in another blowout against Toronto.
“Anytime we have a game like this where we can get him in there, I’m going to try and do that,” Aaron Boone said Sunday. He also joked that Tanner Swanson is “always on me” about getting Rice behind the plate.
Swanson, the Yankees’ director of catching, is a big believer in Rice as a backstop, so much so that he said the 26-year-old could be a starting catcher for more than a handful of teams right now. However, there’s been no room for Rice to play the position, as the Bombers are also rostering Austin Wells and J.C. Escarra.
Rice has spent more time at first base as a big leaguer, but he’s only played 23 innings there this season with the veteran Paul Goldschmidt occupying the position. Still, Rice has remained a regular in the Yankees’ lineup, filling the DH role with Giancarlo Stanton slowly recovering from tennis elbows.
The results have been a revelation: Rice entered Wednesday’s series finale against the Orioles slashing .278/.387/.611 with a 184 wRC+, eight home runs and 13 RBI while primarily hitting at the top or in the middle of the Yankees’ order.
While Stanton isn’t returning anytime soon after missing all of spring training, his potential looming presence has left some wondering if Rice will get more in-game defensive reps.
On Wednesday, Boone said that he’s started to think about how a more crowded roster — there’s also the rehabbing DJ LeMahieu — could impact Rice. While the manager doesn’t want to get ahead of himself, he did say, “I’ll get him at first a little bit here” before adding “he has done a lot of work behind the scenes from a catching standpoint.”
In addition to regularly taking grounders at first, Rice works on catching every day. However, Swanson noted that pregame work and catching off high-speed Trajekt machines are not equivalent to game speed, which is why he pushes Boone to get Rice in whenever possible.
Boone said that he wanted Rice to catch in the Yankees’ slugfest against the Orioles on Tuesday, but he opted against it after the slugger was hit by a pitch in the fifth inning.
One thing Boone is still not considering is using Rice at any unfamiliar positions. In explaining why, the skipper said that Rice already has his hands full with his catching and first base responsibilities while being an everyday player.
“We want to keep the focus on that,” Boone said.
Chisholm Out, Flanked
As expected, Jazz Chisholm Jr. sat out of the Yankees’ lineup on Wednesday after suffering a right oblique — or, in his preferred terms, a “flank” — injury in Tuesday’s game.
Chisholm said he felt good Wednesday, while Boone added the second baseman “seems alright” despite dealing with some soreness. Chisholm was expected to get treatment Wednesday while taking the day off from baseball activities.
On Thursday, he will get an MRI in New York with the Yankees off. That will determine how the club proceeds.
“We’ll see if this is going to be truly a couple-day thing,” Boone said. “Or if it turns into a week, which would probably be an IL situation because we want to avoid that longer-term thing. It doesn’t feel like it’s a major thing, but we’re going to know a lot more tomorrow.”
For what it’s worth, Chisholm wasn’t concerned about the IL on Tuesday night.
“He seems to have a really good feel for his body,” Boone said. “He has actually been, historically, a very heal fast kind of guy. Last year we went through when he hurt the elbow. He was kind of saying the same things, and he was right. So we’ll see how the next couple days are and make a call.”
LeMahieu’s Plan
Boone said the hope is that LeMahieu will resume his rehab assignment Friday.
The infielder has been working his way back from a calf strain, but he received a cortisone shot for his hip on Tuesday. Boone described the shot as preemptive, as LeMahieu has been bothered by his hip in the past and “felt a little something maybe coming on.”
