TAMPA – When Ben Rice reported to spring training this year, he did so with a more muscular frame than the 216-pound one that he debuted with last June.
Rice said that he’s added 10-15 pounds since then. He specified that all that weight wasn’t added over the offseason alone, but throughout the last several months.
“It wasn’t this two-month, ultimate transformation,” Rice said. “People keep saying it. It would be impossible to add good, functional weight in that short of a span.”
Rice called the weight gain a “personal decision,” as the 26-year-old felt he needed to fill out more. However, he consulted with Drew Weisberg, the Yankees’ dietician, in his quest to add muscle.
“He basically just said all you gotta do is add some more calories and carbs in there,” Rice said. “That was the main thing. It seemed to do the trick over the course of a few months.”
Rice’s new body has yielded huge results this spring, as he entered Monday’s spring training finale against the Mets hitting .259/.328/.880 with five home runs and nine RBI. While exhibition stats should always be taken with a grain of salt, Rice has been regularly smoking the ball over 100 mph, an encouraging sign as the Yankees look for him to help fill the DH void left by Giancarlo Stanton’s tennis elbows.
“He’s banging,” Aaron Boone recently said. “He’s killing the ball. We saw that last year. We saw him flash that at the big league level.”
Added Brian Cashman: “He’s hammering it. He’s had a great spring swinging the bat. He worked his tail off this winter. We already felt he was a quality, talented player. So he just continues to reinforce that.”
Ben Rice EVAPORATES a ball 113.3 MPH for solo HR; it’s the hardest-hit ball of his CAREER. pic.twitter.com/WrW7qppS3D
— Fireside Yankees (@FiresideYankees) March 1, 2025
Rice said that there’s no doubt his weight gain has contributed to the harder contact he’s made.
“Absolutely,” he said. “With more mass and more force going into the baseball, it’s gonna come off harder.
“It definitely gives you more room for error.”
With Stanton out indefinitely, Rice should see plenty of action after playing in 50 major league games last season. He struggled overall, slashing just .171/.264/.349 with seven homers and 23 RBI.
However, there were bursts of potential, like when he crushed three homers against the Red Sox on July 6.
Now the Yankees are hoping that the uber-confident, bulked-up Rice can be a consistent offensive force while also helping at first base and behind the plate.
“We saw him take his lumps at the big league level,” Boone said. “But even then, he was still hitting the ball hard a lot. Now he’s just physically that much stronger, and that’s showing. He’s hitting the ball as hard as anyone you’ll see consistently, all while controlling the strike zone.”