Ben Rice picked up three more hits yesterday, continuing to mash in the middle of a Yankees‘ offense that leads baseball in Runs Scored and OPS.
The left-handed slugger wasn’t a lock to make the roster entering camp, but an injury to Giancarlo Stanton would open up the DH spot for the first half of the season.
After beating out Dominic Smith for the job, Ben Rice would be penciled in as the team’s primary DH against right-handed hitters, and he hasn’t looked back.
One of the 25 best hitters in the sport according to wRC+ (131), the Yankees have gotten tons of production from a late-round draft pick.
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Good Times Keep Rolling as Ben Rice Is Mashing For the Yankees Right Now
Ben Rice has been one of the best hitters in baseball this season in terms of OPS+ and wRC+, but he’s also been one of the unluckiest by most metrics.
He’s second on the Yankees in Expected OPS behind Aaron Judge, and ranks inside the top 10 for hitters with at least 400 plate appearances.
The offense he’s provided has changed the dynamic of this offense, being a patient hitter who makes a lot of contact and crushes the ball when he does.
On the season, Ben Rice ranks in the 61st Percentile in K% (19.3%) and the 69th Percentile in Whiff% (21.4%), a rare feat considering he also ranks in the 95th Percentile in Average EV.
Among qualified hitters with a Barrel% > 15%, he has the lowest Whiff% in MLB, edging out Mets superstar Juan Soto, who is a first-ballot Hall of Famer in the making.
While the Yankees lost Soto to the Mets, they found ways to replenish their offense with Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt, and the emergence of Trent Grisham.
Ben Rice has a chance to be not just a short-term bandage for the Soto-sized hole in the offense, but a long-term one as well with how he’s progressed.
He has a .768 OPS and 106 wRC+ against lefties this year, sporting a .338 xwOBA in those matchups which would indicate that both his process and results are strong.
It makes him a full-time player instead of a strong-side platoon one, and with a 98th Percentile xwOBA as a whole, he might be one of the most talented hitters in the game.
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