Amidst a tough stretch, a bright spot has emerged for the Yankees.
Rookie Ben Rice has provided some stability in the middle of the Bombers’ lineup. Just 13 games into his big league career, the 25-year-old has made a smooth transition to the big league thus far.
“I’ve felt good,” Rice told the Daily News. “I think just continuing to see the pitchers at this level and feeling out how they’re approaching me with whatever scouting reports they got and just kind of playing that game of chess in the batter’s box and competing.”
Rice, a product of Dartmouth College, has played chess in the box at an elite rate during his brief stint in the bigs. The neophyte owns an 18.4% chase rate and a 13.6% walk rate — for reference, Juan Soto owns a 16.9% chase rate (98th percentile in baseball) and a 19.2% walk rate (100th percentile in MLB).
Aaron Boone and others have touted Rice’s maturity at the dish as the rookie has continued to have professional at-bats while making good swing decisions.
“I think [plate discipline] is something I’ve been relatively good at in my career,” Rice told The News. “When I got to the minors I, along with our hitting department, put special emphasis on that. Kind of trained that a lot day in and day out. That’s definitely something we really make sure all of our minor league guys train hard on.”
Rice is slashing .270/.364/.351 with four RBI early in his career. While the left-handed hitter has displayed the patience he showed in the minors — .397 OBP in 224 games over four years in the Yankees system — the power tool has not yet peaked its head.
The former 12th-round draft pick slugged 20 homers in 73 games last season and 15 homers in 60 games before being called up the Bronx this year. However, Rice has yet to leave the yard against major league pitching in his short stint.
“[The pitching] is definitely a step up, for sure,” Rice told The News. “You’re facing some guys with a lot of experience, some guys who have been around the league for a long time and seen pretty much any kind of hitter you can think of. So they’re always going to have a plan and have good stuff on top of that.
“It’s definitely a step up.”
While having to adjust to the highest level in the batter’s box, Rice has also been playing his second position defensively. The Yankees first baseman spent only 55 games there in his minor league career while having 118 games at catcher under his belt.
Adjusting to first base as his primary position is still a learning process for the rookie.
“It’s been good,” said Rice. “Played a fair amount of first base the last two seasons in the minors and of course primarily was always a catcher. With that being said, I’m always just going to go wherever they need me. It’s a learning process over there, I’m going to continue to get better and continue to get my early work in every day and just find ways to improve.”
When a minor league player gets his first call to the big leagues, expectations versus reality can be vastly different as far as what is experienced in the highest professional league. However, the Massachusetts native’s experience couldn’t be going better thus far.
“To be honest, when I came up, I didn’t really know what to expect,” Rice told The News. “I knew it’ the big leagues and it would be a little different but, so far, it’s been everything I could’ve hoped for.
“It’s been a lot of fun.”
