Ben Rice arrived in spring training a man without a position, a roster spot leaving camp far from guaranteed.
Thursday night, the 26-year-old left-handed-hitting first baseman/catcher/DH was in the starting lineup for the Yankees’ biggest game of the season, Game 3 of the AL Wild Card Series against the Red Sox.
Rice, who hit the ball hard throughout the spring to secure the primary DH job, was in the lineup, batting fifth and playing first base – doing so against a left-handed starter (Boston rookie Connelly Early), a rarity this season.
But Rice, who has been consistently barreling baseballs since the start of the Grapefruit League in late February, left the Yankees no choice Thursday.
After Paul Goldschmidt, who did hit lefties well all season (a .336 batting average), started Game 1 against ace Red Sox lefthander Garrett Crochet, Rice started Game 2.
He hit a two-run homer in the first off righty Brayan Bello to get the Yankees off and running in an eventual 4-3 victory.
Rice, who hit .255 this season with 26 homers with an .836 OPS, nearly drove in additional runs in the third against lefthander Justin Wilson, hitting a 109-mph line drive out to right with two runners on.
“Didn’t hurt,” Aaron Boone said before Game 3 of the decision to go with Rice. “I just think Benny’s presence and the threat to put one in the seats, I thought it was the right thing.”
“He hits the ball hard every single time he gets up there,” Aaron Judge said of Rice after Game 2. “He has great at-bats and knows what he’s looking for. When he gets his pitch, he doesn’t miss.”
Boone said it was a “tough decision” to sit the 38-year-old Goldschmidt, a four-time Gold Glove winner at first, in favor of Rice, who was drafted as a catcher and has been more or less learning to play the position on the fly this season.
Rival scouts assigned to the Yankees have said Rice, not seen as a strong defender at catcher or at first, has gradually gotten better at both positions, those evaluators taking note especially of his improvement at the corner spot.
“You can see he’s a guy who’s been putting the work in there,” said one AL scout. “He’s still not great over there but he’s to the point where he’s probably not going to kill them either. But it’s still worth the risk because of the bat.”
Goldschmidt, a defensive replacement in the later innings of many of the games Rice has started this season, has served as a mentor for the younger player, starting in spring training. He could be seen on the field, while both were taking balls before Game 3, occasionally chatting with Rice.
“I had a great conversation with Goldy about it,” Boone said of Goldschmidt, who early in his first season with the Yankees became one of the most respected and well-liked players in the clubhouse. “I mean, he’s unbelievable. He’s like, ‘I get it. I’ll be ready to go for whatever.’ He’s as good as it gets, he really is..”
Rice finished the season particularly strong, hitting .316 with four homers, seven doubles and a .932 OPS over the team’s final 22 games (the Yankees went 15-7), so it was a bit of a surprise he didn’t start Game 1.
What happened in Game 2, when Rice becamethe seventh Yankee to hit a home run in his first career postseason plate appearance – and the first since Shane Spencer in Game 2 of the 1998 ALCS against Texas – made the choice to go with him in Game 3 a no-brainer.
Said Boone: “I just think, the way Benny is going right now, the impact he is having, the ability to change a game, the presence in the box right now really over the last few weeks and , not knowing how they are going to deploy everything, having that true balance in the lineup [made it] a difficult call, but one that I felt like was the right thing to do.”
Rice, a 12th round pick of the Yankees in 2021 who grew up a Yankees fan in the heart of Red Sox country (Cohasset, Mass.) is living out a childhood dream.
“Unbelievable. So cool,” Rice said. “One, to be a part of the rivalry now, just given where I am from and where I grew up and all that, just makes it all that much more special.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.