The New York Yankees could make a rather surprising decision involving Ben Rice.
Rice, like most of the Yankees’ offense, is off to a hot start. But one thing he has struggled with is ABS challenges. The first baseman has made some bad challenges and challenged in odd scenarios when it wasn’t needed.
With that, Yankees analyst Colin Keane of FanSided urges Aaron Boone and New York to ban Rice from challenging pitches.
“Given how fascinated and invested in the art of ABS Aaron Boone has already become, you have to assume Boonie was incensed to witness Rice throw away not one, but two precious challenges within 48 hours. Do Rice’s otherwise sparkling baseball offerings make Boone — and the rest of us — feel more forgiving about his ABS struggles? Of course,” Keane wrote.
“This leads to an interesting question that will no doubt be on the minds of Boone and other managers around MLB, if it’s not already: At what point should a team prohibit a certain player from utilizing ABS (or at least set strict parameters for when they’re able to use it)? Is this, in general, a distasteful move that erodes a respectful relationship with that player, regardless of how bad he is at challenging? … If Boone were to pull the trigger on this sort of thing, he’d have an obvious guinea pig in Rice.”
The Yankees banning Rice from ABS challenges would be a surprise. But it could be something Boone does if Rice continues to struggle.
However, at the plate, Rice has been stellar as he’s hitting .370 with 3 home runs and 11 RBIs in 27 at-bats.
Yankees Wanted to be Aggressive With ABS
MLB implemented ABS this season, and it’s already well-received by fans and players.
Ahead of the season, Boone said he wanted his guys to be aggressive with it and use it to their advantage.
“Opportunity,” Boone said. “Our guys being, I think, good at it. I think we’ve kind of established that we want to be aggressive with it. Smartly, but aggressive.”
Yankees catching coach Tanner Swanson, meanwhile, said the team isn’t worried about saving the challenges for situations later on in the game that may not happen.
“We’re definitely not saving them for situations that may never come up with an understanding that those later or high-leverage situations are worth more,” Swanson said. “But there’s a lot of value early. The first pitch of the game is one of the highest-missed pitches throughout the game, for whatever reason. We want to be willing to take a shot there if we think an umpire missed a call. We want to be good early. There’s value to be had early. There’s value in between. We’re trying to be good at both.”
Ultimately, New York has been one of the more aggressive teams in ABS, and it’s helped the team get off to a 7-2 start.
Rice’s ABS Challenges
Although MLB players are getting used to ABS, Rice has struggled with it.
In the bottom of the second in a game, the Yankees were up 4-1, Rice challenged a pitch that was clearly a strike.
Then, the next day, Rice challenged another pitch where the entire ball was in the strike zone.
Although Rice has struggled with ABS, he has been putting together solid at-bats to help the Yankees’ offense.
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