Yankees Urged To Make Position Switch With Talented Young Player

Ben Rice is a natural catcher, and he has quickly ascended to the role of New York Yankees No. 2 catcher behind Austin Wells.

Yet, with Wells slumping, and Rice playing very well behind the plate and toting one of the Yanks’ best bats, there are calls for manager Aaron Boone to make him the team’s primary catcher for the season’s stretch drive.

Rice was chosen out of Dartmouth College in the 12th round of the 2021 MLB Draft as a catcher and played there primarily in the minors until the Yankees played him at first base starting last year in the majors.

Why Should Ben Rice Catch Over Austin Wells?

Though Rice opened the year in a first-base platoon with Paul Goldschmidt, his bat has become to valuable for the Yankees to leave on the bench — especially with a glut of injuries and ineffective bats clogging up the Yankees lineup over the past month.

Wells has been one of those ineffective hitters. Despite his effective pitch framing and 15 homers and 56 RBIs — both are career highs  — he has a -0.1 bWAR and ranks 18th in wRC+ (84) among 21 catchers with at least 300 plate appearances.

Wells has been especially awful at the place over the past month, since he is slashing .118/.179/.196 with just one home run in 15 games in the second half — a major reason why the Yankees are 10-13 since the All-Star break.

“Over the last month, it’s been a grind for him, kind of working on different things, all trying to kind of get that feeling because I do feel like he is such a capable and good hitter,” Boone said. “We gotta get him to where he is a key figure for us because he really lengthens our lineup when he’s right.”

Enter Rice, who has supplanted light-hitting J.C. Escarra as the team’s alternate catcher. He is fifth on the Yankees in OPS+ (117) and wRC+ (120) among batters with at least 350 plate appearances and has a .683 OPS in 19 games as a catcher — superior to Wells’ mark of .679.

Plus, he can frame pitches and works well behind the plate too.

“He does a really good job of game planning,” Yankees starter Will Warren said, according to The Athletic. “It’s been like he’s been catching this whole time and never played first base, so it’s really nice throwing to him.”

All that caused The Athletic Yankees beat writer Chris Kirschner to float potentially making Rice the starting catcher.

“At the beginning of the season, when Rice was mainly getting at-bats as the Yankees’ designated hitter and first baseman, catching coordinator Tanner Swanson said he believed Rice could start for at least a third of MLB teams,” Kirschner wrote. “Behind the scenes, the Yankees were having Rice catch bullpens and slowly working him into lopsided games behind the plate. He’s now showing he could handle a bigger workload.”

Will The Yankees Make Ben Rice Their Starting Catcher?

Yankees fans have grown frustrated with Boone amid their recent swoon — where they have dropped into the No. 3 AL wild card just one game ahead of the Cleveland Guardians.

Yet, when asked about the potential for Boone to replace Wells with Rice on a more permanent level, he was noncommittal.

“I don’t know. We’ll see,” Boone said.

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