July 7, 2026: For years, whenever Ben Rice needed batting practice, he knew exactly whom to call.

On chain-link fields across Massachusetts, Dan Rice would pile out of his car carrying a bucket of baseballs, meeting his son at a distance of 60 feet and 6 inches. It was a familiar routine that worked, allowing them to spend time together while fine-tuning swings for game action.

So when Rice accepted an invitation this week to represent the Yankees in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby, his father excitedly began his usual stretching exercises at home. This will be unlike any of the previous sessions that preceded summer league games and Cape Cod League contests.

“My dad has always been there for me,” Rice told MLB.com. “Every offseason, I’m going back and making sure I get my BP in with my dad. He always went the extra mile; he’d drive an hour-plus or two hours from Cohasset, and we’d go hit at a local field to get our swings in for the day.”

So Rice believes he has a good idea of what to expect when he steps into the batter’s box for the Derby, to be held at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park at 8 p.m. ET live on Netflix.Dan Rice was a pitcher on Brown University’s baseball team in the 1980s, returning to the mound decades later to groove fastballs and curves to his son. As Ben Rice said, “His lifetime pitch count is through the roof at this point.”

“Our BP was never about nitpicking my swing or a lot of instruction, to be honest,” Rice said. “He would try to throw me off-balance with different pitches and have me work through situations. He wanted me to become a good hitter, not necessarily to have a great swing. That was huge in my development.”  The Yankees’ team leader with 25 home runs entering the game against the Rays, the 27-year-old Rice has become a staple in the Bombers’ lineup, belting 58 homers over his first three seasons in the Majors.

Rice introduced himself to the game’s oldest rivalry by hitting three homers against the Red Sox in a July 2024 contest, becoming the first Yankees rookie ever to enjoy a three-homer game.

He also has a little experience with home run-hitting competitions. Rice said that in his 2020 summer league, games switched to a Derby competition if tied after 10 innings. He did it three times then, and now Rice will test that stroke in the Derby.

“I just want to enjoy it, having fun taking BP with my dad at a big league field in front of a bunch of people,” Rice said. (B Hoch - MLB.com - July 7, 2026)

June 22: Ben Rice may not win the fan vote for American League starting first baseman, but at this point, keeping him out of the All-Star Game altogether would be far more shocking. The New York Yankees slugger continues to put together one of the biggest breakout seasons in baseball, and his numbers stack up favorably against virtually every first baseman in the American League.

Yet with the latest All-Star voting update released Monday, Rice still trails Toronto Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. by more than 575,000 votes for the starting job. That's where popularity and production have created two very different conversations.

 One is about who starts. The other is about who deserves to be there.

Rice's numbers tell the story

Rice entered Monday hitting .293 with 22 home runs, 53 RBIs and a 1.004 OPS through 71 games. Those numbers aren't just good enough for an All-Star appearance. They're good enough to place him among the most dangerous hitters in the American League.

His 22 home runs rank fourth in the AL, while his OPS sits above the 1.000 mark, a threshold reached by only a handful of elite hitters each season. The production has become even more important for New York as the Yankees navigate life without Aaron Judge, who remains sidelined with a rib stress fracture.

When Judge went down, someone needed to help carry the offense. Rice answered the call.

From Dartmouth to Yankee StadiumWhat makes Rice's rise even more remarkable is how unlikely it seemed just a few years ago. The Cohasset, Massachusetts native played college baseball at Dartmouth before being selected by the Yankees in the 12th round of the 2021 MLB Draft. He wasn't viewed as a can't-miss prospect or future star. Instead, he steadily climbed through the organization while improving at every level.

Now he's become one of the best success stories in baseball. Last season offered a glimpse of his power potential. This season has transformed him into one of the league's premier offensive threats.

For Yankees fans, he's become much more than a pleasant surprise. He's become essential.  (Rodney Knuppel - The Sporting News)

July 28, 2021: The Yankees signed C Ben Rice, out of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Matt Hyde stayed on him the whole time, and New York pounced in the 12th round.

2021 Season: He languished in 20 games at Low-A Tampa post-draft, hitting .210 ... but with an impressive .359 OBP and .746 OPS masked by a poor average.

2022 Season: Rice's rise involved a full year of repeating the level, where his average (.267) rose to meet his on-base skills a bit, resulting in nine homers, 28 walks, and an .810 OPS.

2023 Season: Rice was one of the most out-of-nowhere prospects in the Yankees’ system this season. I did peg him as a sleeper candidate to start the season, but I must admit I did not see this massive breakout coming.

Rice finished the year with a .324/.434/.615/1.048 line with 20 homeruns, 18 doubles, and one triple in just 73 games. He had 62 K : 44 BB and even stole 11 bases despite average speed. Rice has brought himself to the forefront as a potential option next season to seize any opportunities that may present over the course of the year.

Ben could represent a solid bat at first base if Rizzo can’t stay healthy again, or he could be an option at catcher. There’s an outside chance that if he continues to hit the way he did in 2023, he could force the issue. That’s not out of the question. In one year, Rice went from a relative afterthought to most casual fans to a guy who should be in everyone’s top 30 Yankees’ prospects. Keep an eye out. (Greg Corcoran - Oct. 17, 2023)

In 2024, the Baseball America Prospect Handbook rated Rice as the 12th-best prospect in the Yankees' organization.

March 17, 2024: Catcher/first baseman Ben Rice and RHP Chase Hampton have been named the winners of the 2023 Kevin Lawn Awards, as the Yankees’ minor-league Position Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year, respectively.

Also our pick as the top Yankees hitting performer in 2023, Rice batted .273/.400/.568 with a system-best 24 homers in just 79 games between Double-A and Triple-A before making a big league debut that included a three-homer game against the Red Sox. (Mayo, Callis & Dykstra - MLB.com - Oct 17, 2024)

April 24, 2025: Rice spoke with MLB's Anthony Castrovince this week and revealed that, as a child, he snuck away from a Fenway Park tour and scrawled, "Yankees Rule!" on the famed Pesky Pole. Odds the graffiti hasn't been painted over by now are one in a million, but it's certainly the thought that counts.

Rice, who was the runner-up to Guerrero in the Phase 2 voting, was not the players’ selection as a second first baseman – that went to Nick Kurtz of the Athletics, who will start in Vlad’s place – but Rice makes it in the midst of a season where he leads the Yankees in homers (24) and RBI (56) in a season where the team has been without several starters, including Judge, for long stretches.

“I’m excited about it. I can’t wait to enjoy the weekend,” Rice told MLB.com. “I didn’t necessarily come into the season saying, ‘I really want to be on the All-Star team.’ If you do your best every day and stick to your process and the results follow, maybe you get the chance.”  (Lou DiPietro - WFAN)

The Yankees’ young slugger is in the Home Run Derby and Dan Rice, his father, is coming to throw to him. The elder Rice pitched at Brown in the 1980s and has never really stopped tossing to his son since he was able to hold a bat. On Monday, July 13, it'll just be at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia in front of the whole country instead of in their backyard.

“That was always a lifelong dream of both of ours,” Rice said Tuesday, June 7 before New York took on the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. “So I am really looking forward to it.”

Rice, 27, is a first-time All-Star and a first-time entrant in the derby. He has the credentials, as he has grown into the bat that has kept the Yankees' lineup afloat while Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are hurt.

That he is the one everyone expected to step up and fill in for Judge and Stanton is an almost dream in and of itself.  (Kristie Ackert - LOHUD)

Rice’s strong peripherals: Yankees hitting coach James Rowson said the first baseman’s 2025 season is even more impressive than it looks on the surface. Rice at times has hit into poor luck, and his expected numbers reflect just how much he is crushing the ball.

His average exit velocity is in the top 5 percent of the league. His expected slugging percentage is in the top 3 percent. It’s more than natural ability, too. Rowson raved about the 25-year-old’s preparation, saying, “For such a young hitter, he’s light years ahead of where most guys with his time would be.” (Weaver/Rosenthal - Sep 19, 2025- The Athletic)

Rice's hallmark has always been strong plate discipline and bat- to-ball skills. The results have been strikeout and walk rates of roughly 19% and 13%. He was also one of just three minor leaguers with 20 or more homers and fewer than 70 strikeouts.

The lefty hitter hits the ball quite hard, with average (91) and 90th percentile (104) exit velocities that ranked among the best in the system. His barrel accuracy was also excellent. When he’s going bad, Rice has a tendency to hook balls. To fix the problem, the Yankees worked with him to keep his body in the proper position to stay behind pitches and drive them across the field. (Josh Norris - Baseball America Prospect Handbook - Spring, 2024)

In 2023, his breakout season, Rice hit .324/.434/.615 with 20 home runs in 73 games, most of them at Double-A Somerset. In his time in the Eastern League, he started 24 games at catcher, 14 at first base and another nine at DH.

“I wouldn’t say you expect those numbers, but capable, yes,” Ben said. “It’s knowing what I’m doing well and keeping that consistency—a lot of contact, hitting it hard, keep making good decisions and staying true to my approach." (Mike Ashmore - Baseball America - Nov., 2023)

July 6, 2024: The young first baseman became the first rookie in Yankees history to homer three times in a single game, doing so while driving in seven to help his team snap a four-game losing streak in a 14-4 win over the Red Sox. 

2025 Season: Rice is coming off a promising sophomore campaign, showcasing how his intriguing left-handed power plays with the short, right porch in the Bronx. Rice hit .255/.337/.499 with 26 home runs in 467 at-bats. While these numbers are already exceptional, this only scratches the surface of what Rice is capable of.

According to Baseball Savant, Rice’s metrics are elite, sitting in the 90th percentile and above in xWOBA, xSLUG, xBA, average exit velocity, barrel percentage, hard-hit percentage, launch-angle sweet spot and chase. His expected batting average is .299 compared to his actual average of .255, which suggests he’s been unlucky.

Rice has clear untapped potential. Given his stellar metrics, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Yankees made him their everyday first baseman. However, that might be a bad idea.

The Yankees’ four-game loss to the Blue Jays in the ALDS was just the latest edition of their annual disappointment, which has plagued them since their last World Series title in 2009. And if nothing changes, we can’t expect a different outcome.

In the postseason, Rice wasn’t exactly the middle-of-the-order bat the Yankees needed, going 4-for-18 with two walks and eight strikeouts, though he did hit one of the team’s six home runs. While there is always the chance he can mature as a hitter, the Yankees have a lot they need to improve on, and there are some appealing first base options on the free agent market.

Among the top first basemen up for grabs are Josh Naylor, Pete Alonso, Munetaka Murakami, Kazuma Okamoto, and Ryan O’Hearn. If the Yankees were to ignore this thriving first-base market, this would greatly limit their ability to improve.

Would acquiring another first baseman mean letting go of Rice? Not necessarily, the Yankees just need to develop him as a catcher and move Austin Wells into the backup role. In his second full year, Wells has shown no improvement at the plate, hitting .219/.275/.436 with 21 home runs. If the Yankees sign an impact bat and replace Wells with Rice – or at least platoon them, since Wells is satisfactory against lefties – this would greatly improve their production.

Developing Rice as a backstop might not be an easy task, because he hasn’t yet displayed much prowess behind the plate. Still, if the Yankees can pull it off, this could be the difference between returning to the World Series and more familiar disappointment. (Jacob Mountz | Oct 16, 2025 - Yardbarker)

Ben catches in a one-knee down stance and did a good job keeping pitches in front of him—he allowed just one passed ball all year—but he’s going to have to really improve his arm to control the running game. He caught just 5 of 68 potential base-stealers between High-A and Double-A. Rice also got into 18 games at first base, which could be his long-term home.

While Rice takes pride in his defense at catcher, he knows that if his lefthanded bat continues to carry him that playing first base may create a quicker path to MLB.

“I feel comfortable at first base,” Rice said, “but it’s been slow progress . . .

“Even if it’s just once or twice a week, getting as many reps under my belt as possible is so important, and that’s something I’m going to focus on in the offseason, just rounding myself out as a player.” (Ashmore - BA - Nov., 2023)