How Yankees can keep Ben Rice in the lineup

First, Boone could platoon the lefty-swinging Rice at first base with Goldschmidt, a right-handed hitter. That may seem like an absurd idea, as Goldschmidt is a former superstar hitting .310/.366/.459. But after a torrid start to the season, Goldschmidt is starting to show his age.

Goldy entered May hitting .361/.406/.500. In the 33 games since, each category in his slash line has dropped by 40 or more points, indicating that he may be quickly regressing to the career-lows he put up as a St. Louis Cardinal last year (.245/.302/.414). But while his overall numbers have plummeted, he’s still crushing southpaws to the tune of a 1.305 OPS. 

Meanwhile, Rice is hitting an above-average .260/.353/.500 versus right-handed hurlers. A platoon could take advantage of both hitters’ strengths.

Another option is to make Rice the backup catcher. Boone is already priming him for the role by letting him catch late in lopsided games, and on Tuesday, he looked pretty good, blocking balls in the dirt and catching a pop-up. 

He’s caught more than 1,000 innings in his professional career, throwing out runners at a 17 percent clip — which isn’t great, but not much worse than Yankees catcher Austin Wells’ 19 percent mark so far this season. Also, current backup catcher J.C. Escarra has thrown out zero percent of baserunners (0-for-13), so it can’t get worse.

It’s unlikely Boone will go to the extremes of making Goldschmidt a part-time player and letting Rice catch a couple of games a week. But he should at least consider doing so. If the Yankees can develop Rice into their starting first baseman of the future, they won’t have to chase Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami in the offseason, saving a ton of money they can use to fill other roster holes.