Has Ben Rice unofficially supplanted Austin Wells as Yankees' starting catcher?
Carlos Rodon and Ben Rice of the Yankees talk on the mound during the first inning against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Yankees appear to have a new No. 1 catcher.
Oh, they won’t come right out and say it. But Ben Rice started his second game in a row and third in four behind the plate on Tuesday night as the Yankees hosted the Twins in the Bronx.
Rice caught the first seven innings of the Yankees’ 9-1 cakewalk over their perennial patsies, the Minnesota Twins, before moving to first base with the game in hand.
It was the first time Rice had caught Carlos Rodon, who allowed one hit (to the leadoff batter in the first) and one run in seven superb innings.
“I thought Ben was great,” Rodon said. “I think he’s made some really big strides for the first time catching in the big leagues this year. He’s a guy that’s got to be in the lineup.”
Austin Wells and his .208 batting average spent the game on the bench. The question Yankees fans have to be asking is, “What took so long?”
Wells, who finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2024, has been in a “slump” that has lasted nearly an entire calendar year.
From last Sept. 1 to Tuesday, including postseason, Wells was batting .181 in 430 at-bats. It’s a stunning offensive decline for the 26-year-old, and it appears to have finally caught up to him in terms of playing time.
You always hear about “small sample size” in baseball, meaning you have to ignore trends over only a few at-bats. You know what’s not a small sample size? Four-hundred and thirty at-bats.
Remember, Wells was the Yankees’ leadoff hitter on Opening Day. He homered his first time up. A lefthanded-hitting catcher with power is a rare commodity in baseball, and the Yankees were happy to have one.
For now, though, Rice is the lefthanded-hitting catcher with power who has started seven straight games, five of them behind the plate and two at first.
August might be the dog days of the baseball season, but for the two New York teams, it’s also put-up-or-shut time in terms of hanging on to postseason berths.
The days of waiting for guys to find their stride is over, as the Yankees are proving with Wells and the Mets showed on Tuesday when they moved underachieving Frankie Montas to the bullpen.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before the game that he had not spoken to Wells about the situation.
“It’s one of those things — long season,” Boone said. “Hopefully, a couple of days [off will be] beneficial, physically, mentally, all those kind of things. He’s going to play a massive role for us going forward. He’ll be in there [Wednesday].”
Before he started catching more, Rice had been part of the Yankees’ multiplayer rotation at first base and designated hitter; Tuesday’s start was his 12th behind the plate and 20th appearance at the position this season.
In 2024, his rookie season, Rice played exactly one inning at catcher. He mostly filled in at first base when Anthony Rizzo was injured.
But he’s not a first baseman. He’s a catcher. That’s the position Rice played exclusively at Dartmouth, donning the tools of ignorance for the Ivy League school before the Yankees drafted him in the 12th round in 2021.
“We’ve still looked at him very much as a catcher,” Boone said. “It wasn’t lip service. He’s very skilled at the position ... All his behind-the-scenes work, even while he was DHing a lot and playing a lot of first base, was still catching.”
The Yankees feel like Rice is improving behind the plate, and they have always loved his bat. Rice, who went 0-for-3 with two walks Tuesday, is batting .232 with 17 home runs, 38 RBIs, a .786 OPS and, going into the game, had a 117 OPS-plus (league average is 100).
Rice’s offensive numbers would be even better if every ball he has hit hard this season fell in for a hit, even though life doesn’t work that way. But Rice has been especially unlucky in that regard in 2025.
Wells hasn’t been unlucky. He’s just been bad. But the Yankees have loved Wells’ swing, too, and hope he can find it again. The best-case scenario for the team in 2026 (with Paul Goldschmidt likely moving on) is for Wells to reclaim the No. 1 catcher’s job and Rice to play most days at first base.
But that’s a thought for the offseason. The Yankees need every win they can get and at the very least hold off Cleveland and Texas for the final wild-card spot.
“We have, what, 42 games left?” Rodon said. “It’s definitely go time.”
The guy who is playing the best needs to play, and right now that guy is Ben Rice.
Ben Rice the catcher.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
