When the Yankees released their lineup for Thursday’s series finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks, it featured their third different leadoff hitter of the young season.
With Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells getting their first day off of the season, Ben Rice is the latest to get a crack at getting the Bombers’ offense started and manager Aaron Boone’s explanation for the decision was rather simple:
“He rakes,” said the Yankees manager.
Rice is off to a hot start in 2025 as the left-handed hitter entered Thursday’s contest 5-for-13 (.385) with two homers carrying his hard-hitting spring display into the regular season.
“The biggest reason he’s here is because he can swing the bat,” Boone said. “He’s done a good job of that all spring, he’s carried that into a pretty good start here to start the year.”
While Rice’s ability to punish baseballs landed him a somewhat regular spot in the Yanks’ lineup, his versatility offers a nice bonus to the skipper. The 26-year-old got the start at first base on Thursday, however, it is not his primary position. The slugger has made most of his professional starts at catcher — 122 games behind the dish and 116 at first between the majors and minors.
Boone considers having a legitimate third catcher a luxury,
“Having gained a lot of experience over at first base last year was valuable. But, having that element of having a third catcher over there — especially on some given days — I think, especially over time is something that will prove to be valuable.”
While Boone is confident in Rice’s ability to defend behind the plate, unless there is an injury, the skipper doesn’t plan on using him back there too often.
“In a perfect world, he’s catching four to five days a week to continue to develop [back there] because he’s good at it.” said Boone. “Right now, that’s not the situation obviously. He’s doing a lot of catching work behind the scenes every day; that’s where he is work-wise. So, he’s getting his ground balls in at first, but he’s doing a lot of stuff with [catching coach] Tanner [Swanson].
“There will be games here where I’ll try to get him in in certain situations just to try to keep it going. … I don’t know about [finding a start for him], because I view that as JC [Escarra’s] role with Austin [Wells] who I plan on playing a lot, obviously. There could be a game late, like in that first series [vs. the Brewers] where we had a couple of lopsided ones where I can get him in.”
The moral of the story for the Bombers’ young slugger is simple: keep mashing and whatever else he brings to the table is merely icing on the cake.
WILLIAMS TO RETURN FRIDAY IN PITTSBURGH
The Yankees will get their closer back Friday in Pittsburgh as Devin Williams is expected to return off the paternity list against the Pirates, according to Boone. The 30-year-old hasn’t appeared in a game since his team debut on Opening Day against the Brewers where he surrendered one run but recorded the save.
INJURY UPDATES
Boone provided a plethora of updates on Bombers that are on the shelf to begin the season.
DJ LeMahieu (calf) was on the field taking batting practice on Thursday and is about a week away from starting to take live at-bats. However, the veteran will need a “full spring training workload” before he returns.
Right-hander Clarke Schmidt (back) will make a rehab start for the Somerset Patriots on Saturday. Boone expects he will make one more rehab start after Saturday’s outing before returning to the Yanks on April 15 or 16 against the Kansas City Royals.
Ian Hamilton (illness) is expected to be activated on Apr. 7 against the Detroit Tigers.