Yankees Have Found Next Star Slugger

Though the New York Yankees traversed their way through the American League en route to a pennant and World Series berth last season, the club's lineup depth was severely lacking.

Aaron Judge and Juan Soto handled a majority of the heavy lifting, and while some of the Yankees' ancillary pieces stepped up at times, consistency was at a premium for the group.

After Soto shocked the baseball world and signed with the Mets, the Bronx Bombers understood they would have to deploy a different strategy in supplementing their offense this past offseason.

They brought in a pair of former MVPs in Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt at relatively cheap prices all things considered, and both moves have paid off in spades thus far.

Improvement for players already residing within the organization has also been integral to crafting the AL's highest-scoring unit thus far, as Trent Grisham is tearing the cover off the ball with a 158 wRC+ and .907 OPS while his career marks in those categories sit at 99 and .710, respectively.

Perhaps no individual performance, however, is more promising for the Yankees than Ben Rice's, who Empire Sports Media's Alexander Wilson believes will eventually take over as the club's starter at first base should he remain on his current trajectory.

"Assuming his development continues on this trajectory, it’s easy to envision Rice as the Yankees’ everyday first baseman starting in 2026," Wilson wrote.

"That job once felt like a revolving door, but now the Yankees may have found their answer — they just need to help him cut the whiffs and trust his eye.

"The sky isn’t just the limit for Rice. He’s already launching baseballs into it."

A 12th-round pick out of Dartmouth in 2021, Rice posted an OPS of 1.048 as a minor leaguer in 2023 and .967 in 2024 while making his major league debut on June 18 last year.

His rookie campaign didn't go swimmingly, as he batted .171/.264/.349 with seven home runs across 50 games and 178 plate appearances, but the left-handed hitter has bounced back in a big way this season.

Rice's slash line currently sits at .245/.335/.523 to go with 10 home runs, 22 RBIs and a 141 wRC+ in 44 contests and 173 trips to the plate. His batted ball data is elite too, as he boasts a 95th percentile or higher placement in xwOBA (.412), xSLG (.575), average exit velocity (94.0 mph), barrel rate (19.1%) and hard-hit rate (58.2), per Baseball Savant.

The 26-year-old's inability to hit southpaws (career .615 OPS in MLB) may limit his ceiling until he makes great strides in that facet of his game, but the Yankees appear to have another potential star slugger on their hands nonetheless.

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