Man what a time to be alive if you are a fan of the New York Yankees. You saw your prized acquisition leave the franchise and your ace had to have Tommy John surgery. It was a nightmare scenario for the Yankees, especially coming off the World Series loss. Many questions surrounded this team coming into the season and all signs pointed towards their offense. One player that needs to be talked about as a contributor to this offense is none other than Ben Rice.

Ben Rice Enjoying Resurgent Season

With losing Soto, it creates opportunity for other players to step up. One of those player is Ben Rice and he certainly has. Rice is a player that is listed as a first baseman, but he has been the primary designated hitter for the Yankees this season. With the big power bat of Giancarlo Stanton out, they needed more thump in the lineup and they are getting it from Rice.

This is a resurgent year for Rice. Yes, we all remember the infamous Ben Rice game against the Red Sox last season, where he hit three home runs in a 14-4 victory. But his 2024 season was one to put in the rear view mirror. In 50 games and 178 plate appearances, he was hitting .171 and an OPS of .613. Furthermore, he was struggling to make hard contact and his bat was quite unreliable in their lineup. Fast forward a season and Rice is a player that’s developed nicely and refined his game.

The basic stats tell the obvious story here. Rice is seeing his average skyrocket to .323 and his OPS is a 1.092, which is among the best in the league right now. Rice has two home runs already and is likely to pass his seven home hit last season. But it is the stuff under the hood that makes this start to the season special.

One thing that is notable about his game is his bat speed. Rice had a bat speed average of 71.4 MPH and has seen it increase to 74.3. What that has also done is seen his average exit velocity take a major increase from 90 MPH to 96.6 MPH. All of this is making him a hard hitting machine, and he has seen his hard hit percentage rise from 36.7 to 70.

Rice is a player that’s made adjustments. He’s put on the size to make him a bigger and stronger hitter. Furthermore, he’s managed to open up his batting stance, which is being attributed to his hitting. Baseball Savant has a very neat tool where you can see the players batting stance. Rice has a 26 degree opening for his stance, which is wildly different from his 2024 stance where his was just eight degrees.

This is all great, but truly this has taken the notice of his manager Aaron Boone. When he was asked about Ben Rice and to share his thoughts he used the word “rakes”. Well, that’s pretty evident. Also, he went on to say, “he’s killing the ball”, which also very evident.

It’s very early in the season, but you have to be thrilled if you are a Yankees fan and the Yankees in general.

It isnt Just Rice

Yes, there are a few players using these newly put out torpedo bats, but at the end of the day the hitter still has to hit the baseball. But the Yankees comfortably have the best OPS in baseball (.913) and have hit the most home runs. They also lead in wRC+ by a comfortable margin and have just blossomed into this offensive power house right out of the gate.

There are plenty of factors here and a lot of it boils down to players taking the next steps in their careers and players just simply stepping up. You cannot ignore what Jazz Chisholm has done early on, as well as Austin Wells, and even Anthony Volpe is hitting home runs.

This is a good thing for the Yankees and Rice is very much playing his part.