These days, MLB teams love to dive deep into advanced stats and internal metrics to get a clearer picture of player performance—often to explain away a low batting average as simply bad luck. It’s a way of saying a player is making solid contact and having quality at-bats, even if the results aren’t showing up in the box score just yet.
For the Yankees, one of those players is Ben Rice. Throughout spring training, the team couldn’t stop raving about his exit velocity—a key indicator that helped earn him the role of everyday designated hitter while Giancarlo Stanton recovers from elbow injuries.
In a season that’s started a bit unevenly—partly due to the absence of ace Gerrit Cole as he works back from Tommy John surgery—the emergence of young talent like Rice has been a bright spot. Through the early stretch of the year, including 10 games played in sub-50-degree weather, Rice’s production has stood out.
He’s also been a key piece of the Yankees’ unconventional leadoff strategy. Instead of putting speedsters like Jazz Chisholm Jr. or Anthony Volpe at the top, manager Aaron Boone has slotted them behind sluggers Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger, with Rice getting five starts in the leadoff spot. He’s made the most of it—homering twice, reaching base every time, and joining a red-hot trio that includes Austin Wells and Paul Goldschmidt, both hitting over .300 and each with a leadoff homer of their own.
Rice went deep again on Saturday, just one inning after delivering a clutch two-strike single that sparked a five-run rally against the surging San Francisco Giants. On a day when the Yankees’ bats finally warmed up, they looked more like the team that belted 22 home runs in their first six home games than the one that had been stuck in a cold streak.
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