Ben Rice

Ben Rice is the homegrown kid who wasn't supposed to get here this fast. A Dartmouth product -- yeah, Dartmouth, the Ivy League school where people go to become bankers, not ballplayers -- Rice forced his way onto the New York Yankees roster in 2024 and immediately showed he could hit at the big league level. The left-handed bat has real pop, the versatility to play both catcher and first base, and the kind of plate discipline that scouts fall in love with. He's not flashy. He just hits.

Path to the Bronx

Rice grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts -- Boston's South Shore, deep Red Sox country -- and somehow came up a Yankees fan anyway, even as most of his buddies pulled for the Sox. He played his college ball at Dartmouth, and the Yankees grabbed him in the 12th round of the 2021 draft, a late-round flier on a polished left-handed bat. Ivy League hitters don't get much draft-day hype, and a 12th-rounder gets even less. But the brass liked the plate discipline, the power, and the ability to catch and play first base, and the pick turned into one of the steals of that class.

He moved through the minors fast. Rice hit at every level -- Somerset, Scranton, didn't matter. The bat played. By mid-2024, the Yankees had a need at first base, and Rice was the obvious call-up. He debuted on June 18, 2024, and made an immediate impression.

(A kid from the Ivy League playing for the Yankees. If you wrote that in a movie script, the studio would say it's too on the nose.)

Yankees Career

Rice's debut season was a small, bumpy sample -- 50 games, and a .171 average as big league arms exposed the holes in his swing. But the power flashed (7 home runs), and so did the patience and discipline that got him drafted in the first place. Rice walked in roughly 10% of his plate appearances and rarely chased pitches outside the zone. For a 12th-round rookie getting his feet wet, the approach was the part worth buying into, even if the results weren't there yet.

The 2025 season has been the real test. With Paul Goldschmidt around as a veteran mentor and platoon partner, Rice has gotten the bulk of the starts at first base. The power has continued to develop, and the approach at the plate remains mature beyond his experience level. He's not going to hit 40 homers -- that's not his game -- but 20-plus with a .340 on-base percentage and solid defense at first? That's a freakin' everyday player.

The catching thing is a nice wrinkle, too. Rice caught at Dartmouth and through the minors, and the Yankees have used him behind the plate occasionally to give Austin Wells a breather. He's not going to steal the primary catching job, but having a backup who can also mash from the left side is a luxury most teams don't have.

2026: Forty-One

Remember that line up there about him not hitting 40 homers? Yeah. About that.

Rice opened 2026 as the hottest hitter in the American League. By early June he led the Yankees in hits, doubles, RBI, total bases, and runs, with a .300/.393/.638 line and an OPS+ of 184 that ranked second in baseball. Then Aaron Judge went down with a rib fracture, Giancarlo Stanton was already out with a bad calf, and Rice's June went sideways with nobody hitting around him. Stretches of the second half weren't much better.

None of it took him off the field. MLB picked him for his first All-Star team, and he went to Philadelphia for the Home Run Derby with his dad, Dan, throwing to him. He hit seven, the fewest in the first round, and went home early. The Philly crowd booed him during introductions. His response: "They don't boo nobodies." (Correct.)

The finish made up for the summer. On Sept. 23 against the Rays, he hit Nos. 40 and 41 in a 9-2 win. That made him the third Yankee to hit 40 in one of his first three big league seasons, after Joe DiMaggio and Judge, and it beat the 39-homer prediction Aaron Boone made for him in spring training. He finished at .264/.363/.534 with 41 homers, 97 RBI, 105 runs, and 85 walks in 154 games, and he led the team in homers, RBI, and runs.

Then October happened, and the kid from Cohasset got to do it to the Red Sox. In Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, he went 4-for-5 with a double, a solo homer off Erik Miller, a grand slam off Brayan Bello, and six RBI in a 9-0 win. He was the first Yankee with four hits and six RBI in a postseason game, and the six RBI tied the franchise's single-game postseason record. In the ALDS, he hit both Yankees homers in a Game 2 loss, solo shots off Freddy Peralta and Ian Seymour, and drove in a run in Game 3. Four homers in five playoff games. Tampa Bay swept the Yankees anyway, but Rice was about the only hitter in the lineup who showed up for all of it.

Key Moments

The Ivy Leaguer Who Rakes

The Dartmouth thing gets brought up a lot, and honestly, it should -- because it's a great story. The Ivy League doesn't produce big league regulars with any consistency. It's a conference built for academics first, and the baseball competition level is nowhere near the SEC or ACC. For Rice to come out of that environment and hit professional pitching right away speaks to the raw talent and the work ethic.

His swing is compact and geared for line drives -- he doesn't sell out for power, but the ball jumps off his bat when he gets into one. The left-handed stroke plays beautifully at Yankee Stadium, where he can turn on inside fastballs and put them over the short porch. He's also shown the ability to go the other way, which is why pitchers can't just pound him inside and call it a day.

A kid from Red Sox country in the pinstripes he grew up watching. Rice isn't the loudest guy on the roster, and he's never going to be the one doing bat flips or making SportsCenter for his celebration. But the bat is real, the approach is advanced, and the kid just keeps hitting. Sometimes that's all you need.