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With a three-run home run off Orioles left-hander Cade Povich in last night’s 7-2 win at Yankee Stadium, Ben Rice is starting to become a superstar type of talent in the Yankees’ everyday lineup.

Ben Rice currently leads all qualified major league hitters in OPS so far this season (1.169) through 32 games. Rice ranks fifth in home runs (11), and all the drama in the early part of the year because the Yankees started sitting him against lefties, well, that narrative can completely be tossed out the window because Rice is 11-30 (.367 BA) with 5 home runs, 7 RBI’s against southpaws so far in 2026, according to StatMuse.

Underlying Metrics Showed Something Special In Rice

The underlying metrics always pointed to a special hitter at the plate in Ben Rice. During his rookie campaign in 2024, despite posting a .171 batting average and a .613 OPS in 178 plate appearances, Rice showed strong underlying metrics in barrel percentage (15.6) and average exit velocity (90.0 mph), according to Baseball Savant.

In his 2025 breakout campaign, these metrics carried over, with Rice in the 97th percentile in hard-hit percentage (56.1), 92nd percentile in barrel percentage (15.4), and 93rd percentile in average exit velocity (93.3 mph), according to Baseball Savant. This led Rice to hit 26 home runs in 2025, but he also ran into some bad luck (hard-hit outs), where his expected batting average was .280, but he only hit .255, per Baseball Savant.

Despite it still being very early in the season, Rice is already blowing these numbers out of the water, as he’s already near the halfway mark of his home run total from last season. Given Aaron Judge’s greatness, Rice is basically outperforming him to an extent so far, with a higher batting average, OPS, and slugging. However, that could change rather quickly, since Aaron Judge is well, Aaron Judge.

Rice has certainly placed himself in not only MVP conversations to begin the year, but also high amongst the ranks as a first baseman, in which you could argue, he’s been the best first baseman in baseball up to this point already.

Rice proving the Yankees wrong against left handed pitchers

The Yankees sitting Ben Rice against lefties never made any sense, let alone given how talented a hitter he is, but to get better at facing lefties, that usually requires facing them. Rice has proven not only to be an everyday player regardless of who takes the mound, but he has also become a staple in this lineup behind Aaron Judge. I guess you could call him Judge’s Robin, in a sense.

The 27-year-old has even improved defensively at first base compared to 2025. After last night’s 7-2 win, Yankees Manager Aaron Boone on Rice’s performance: “This is the trajectory he’s been on, he’s just gotten better and better to the point of now he’s kind of been a wrecking ball”, stated Boone in the postgame.  

Rice was not a high draft pick. He wasn’t regarded super highly on draft boards and prospect rankings. The catcher drafted out of Dartmouth in the 12th round back in 2021 was a work in progress, but there was something the Yankees scouting department clearly saw in him, and so far, that’s greatly paying off for this Yankees team, not only in 2026, but perhaps well into the future.