Ben Rice

Ben Rice

26-Year-Old First Baseman1B
New York Yankees
2025 Fantasy Outlook
Rice's play initially upon his promotion fueled optimism, but just as quickly as he worked his way into Yankees fans' good graces, he fell out of favor. After his three-homer game July 6, Rice hit .112/.209/.235 over his next 32 games, earning a trip back to Triple-A for the final month. Following the departure of Anthony Rizzo, the Yankees signed Paul Goldschmidt to serve as their primary first baseman for 2025. Rice will likely begin his age-26 season back in the minors serving as depth. His focus has to be on earning and making the most of his next major-league opportunity. Read Past Outlooks
RANKS
Rest of Season From Preseason
#399
ADP
$Signed a one-year contract with the Yankees in March of 2025.
Bowing out of lineup Sunday
1BNew York Yankees
May 4, 2025
Rice is out of the lineup for Sunday's game against the Rays.
ANALYSIS
After starting each of the last four games while going 4-for-17 with two solo home runs, a double and two additional runs, Rice looks to be getting a routine breather for the series finale versus Tampa Bay. Rice's absence from the lineup will open up a spot in the starting nine for Trent Grisham, who will cover center field while Cody Bellinger slides over to right field and Aaron Judge serves as the Yankees' designated hitter.
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Batting Stats
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2025
2024
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Batting Order Slot Breakdown
vs Right-Handed Pitchers
vs RHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
13
2
4
4
vs Left-Handed Pitchers
vs LHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
3
1
4/14/24/34/44/54/64/74/84/94/114/124/134/144/154/164/174/184/194/204/214/224/234/254/274/274/284/294/305/25/3987654321
Left/Right Batting Splits
Since 2023
 
 
+63%
OPS vs RHP
2025
 
 
+106%
OPS vs RHP
2024
 
 
+35%
OPS vs RHP
2023
No Stats
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2023vs Left .502 77 9 3 6 0 .134 .234 .269
Since 2023vs Right .816 219 33 12 30 2 .230 .324 .492
2025vs Left .521 32 4 2 3 0 .133 .188 .333
2025vs Right 1.071 86 18 6 10 2 .306 .419 .653
2024vs Left .483 45 5 1 3 0 .135 .267 .216
2024vs Right .654 133 15 6 20 0 .183 .263 .391
2023vs Left 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2023vs Right 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
More Splits View More Split Stats
Minor League Splits View Minor League Split Stats
Home/Away Batting Splits
Since 2023
 
 
+20%
OPS on Road
2025
 
 
+26%
OPS on Road
2024
 
 
+10%
OPS on Road
2023
No Stats
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2023Home .675 166 22 8 17 1 .182 .283 .392
Since 2023Away .810 130 20 7 19 1 .234 .323 .486
2025Home .816 62 10 4 5 1 .218 .306 .509
2025Away 1.028 56 12 4 8 1 .298 .411 .617
2024Home .587 104 12 4 12 0 .159 .269 .318
2024Away .647 74 8 3 11 0 .188 .257 .391
2023Home 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2023Away 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
More Splits View More Split Stats
Stat Review
How does Ben Rice compare to other hitters?
This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.
  • BB/K
    Walk to strikeout ratio
  • BB Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
  • K Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
  • BABIP
    Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
  • ISO
    Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
  • AVG
    Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
  • OBP
    On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
  • SLG
    Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
  • OPS
    On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
  • wOBA
    Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
  • Exit Velocity
    The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
  • Hard Hit Rate
    A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
  • Barrels/PA
    The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
  • Expected BA
    Expected Batting Average.
  • Expected SLG
    Expected Slugging Percentage.
  • Sprint Speed
    The speed of a runner from home to first, in feet per second.
  • Ground Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are on the ground.
  • Line Drive %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are line drives.
  • Fly Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are fly balls.
BB/K
0.43
 
BB Rate
11.0%
 
K Rate
25.4%
 
BABIP
.281
 
ISO
.304
 
AVG
.255
 
OBP
.356
 
SLG
.559
 
OPS
.915
 
wOBA
.395
 
Exit Velocity
94.5 mph
 
Hard Hit Rate
40.3%
 
Barrels/PA
12.7%
 
Expected BA
.284
 
Expected SLG
.592
 
Sprint Speed
23.1 ft/sec
 
Ground Ball %
45.8%
 
Line Drive %
13.9%
 
Fly Ball %
40.3%
 
Prospect Rankings History
Advanced Batting Stats
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Additional Stats
Games By Position
Defensive Stats
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Batted Ball Stats
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Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers
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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Ben Rice See More
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16 days ago
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16 days ago
Small-sample panic can lead to hasty roster decisions, and create opportunities for other fantasy GMs to benefit by scooping up players such as the Washington Nationals' Dylan Crews.
2024 Fantasy Outlook
Rice put up cartoonish numbers across Single-A, High-A and Double-A as a 24-year-old catcher who probably isn't a good enough defender to catch regularly in the big leagues. He slashed .324/.434/.615 with 20 home runs and an 18.7 percent strikeout rate in 73 games, 48 of which came at Double-A, which was noteworthy enough for him to emerge as a legitimate prospect in dynasty leagues despite his age. He already started seeing time at first base last year, but the Yankees may give him another season to try to make enough progress to stick at catcher. It should be viewed as a long shot that he is catcher eligible in fantasy for more than a year or two. Rice's mammoth power and lack of strikeout issues thus far give him a chance to be an everyday designated hitter/first baseman during his mid-20s, although that opportunity may not come as a member of the Yankees.
More Fantasy News
Will get more defensive reps
1BNew York Yankees
May 1, 2025
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday that he plans to use Rice at first base "a little bit here" and is "going to try" to work him in at catcher during blowout games, Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News reports.
ANALYSIS
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Belts two homers Tuesday
1BNew York Yankees
April 29, 2025
Rice went 3-for-5 with two solo home runs and four runs scored in Tuesday's 15-3 win over the Orioles.
ANALYSIS
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Idle for series opener
1BNew York Yankees
April 28, 2025
Rice is out of the lineup for Monday's game against the Orioles.
ANALYSIS
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Back in action Tuesday
1BNew York Yankees
April 22, 2025
Rice (elbow) will start at designated hitter and bat leadoff in Tuesday's game versus the Guardians.
ANALYSIS
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Expected back Tuesday
1BNew York Yankees
Elbow
April 21, 2025
Manager Aaron Boone expects Rice (elbow) to be back in the starting lineup Tuesday against the Guardians, Brendan Kuty of The Athletic reports.
ANALYSIS
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