David Lennon: Yankees still have Juan Soto; he just calls himself Ben Rice
Yankees’ Ben Rice hits a solo home run against the Mets during the ninth inning at Citi Field on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Juan Soto frequently was booed during Friday night’s Subway Series opener. The strange part? The game was played at Citi Field.
We’ll assume the large contingent of Yankees fans in the building — our conservative estimate was roughly half of the crowd of 40,004 — mostly was responsible for that. Soto spent only one season with the Yankees and now has played more games for the Mets. But apparently some people refuse to move on, still angry about their Yankees being spurned by Soto. He might even regret that decision himself, given the current catastrophe in Queens.
As for the Yankees? They couldn’t be happier. Not only did Hal Steinbrenner pocket the $760 million he intended to spend on Soto, but he reinvested a chunk of that savings in Max Fried and Cody Bellinger.
Then Steinbrenner still got Soto anyway. He just goes by the name Ben Rice.
Rice even wears No. 22, same as Soto did, but the resemblance goes well beyond the uniform. Rice came out of relatively nowhere — right after Soto’s departure — to put up offensive numbers that rival the Mets’ franchise slugger.
Just as Soto combined with Aaron Judge in 2024 to form one of history’s most lethal 1-2 punches, Rice is teaming up with the Yankees’ captain these days, and you can barely notice a difference.
When Rice drilled his 14th home run in Friday’s 5-2 victory over the Mets, he joined Judge (16 homers) as only the second Yankees tandem to hit at least 14 homers each though the team’s first 45 games. The other two were Roger Maris (15) and Mickey Mantle (14) in 1961.
But Rice has done more than merely join forces with the three-time MVP. He’s outperformed Judge, along with everyone else, by leading the majors in OPS (1.104) and slugging percentage (.686) entering Saturday’s night game. He was tied for third in go-ahead RBIs (nine), fourth in extra-base hits (23) and fifth in on-base percentage (.418).
So Rice is basically doing Soto-type stuff better than Soto himself this season, at a tiny fraction of the cost ($845,000).
Dating to the start of the 2025 season — Soto’s first with the Mets — Rice is even closing the gap with the “generational talent,” who is coming off back-to-back third-place MVP finishes.
Entering Saturday, Soto had a slash line of .265/.391/.520, 49 homers and 119 RBIs in his last 189 games. Rice was at .268/.356/.541, 40 homers and 95 RBIs in the past 178 games.
For anyone who wondered how the Yankees could possibly replace Soto, it wound up being way easier than we imagined, and also much faster.
“I think he’s turning into one of the best hitters in the league,” manager Aaron Boone said Saturday afternoon. “Did I have him at that level? I don’t know. I knew he could hit. I thought he was a middle-of-the-order hitter on a really good team. I think he’s probably shown the league he’s a little more than that.”
Maybe a lot more. Nearly all of Rice’s advanced batting stats register above the 90th percentile. Many are significantly higher, such as his 57.7 hard-hit percentage (98), 20.6 barrel percentage (97) and 94.1-mph average exit velocity (96).
“Obviously, he hits the ball really hard,” Bellinger said. “But I think the thing for me is his approach. Doesn’t matter who’s on the mound. He’s got an approach, he knows what he wants to do, and that’s just a recipe for success right there.”
The results certainly back that up, and Rice has been around long enough to demonstrate that we’re not dealing in small sample sizes anymore.
Hard to believe that as recently as mid-April, Boone still considered platooning Rice with Paul Goldschmidt against certain lefty starters. He soon abandoned that thinking once he realized that Rice was his most dangerous offensive weapon, especially with Judge still getting up to MVP speed during April.
And those matchups the manager was worried about? Rice is hitting .308 (12-for-39) with five homers and a 1.092 OPS against lefthanders, so he’s displaying the ability to minimize any weaknesses.
“He’s a student, he’s smart,” Boone said. “He is really disciplined and committed to what he wants to look for, how he processes things, and then he just gets himself into good hitting position so often that it allows him to control the strike zone. Then you see him get off so many good swings on pitches.”
Soto is going to keep triggering Yankees fans during the Subway Series, especially when he returns to the Bronx in September, but there’s really no reason for that anymore. Not when Rice has filled that void for a World Series-contending team and Soto continues to toil for a Mets team headed for oblivion again this year.
Steinbrenner has to be ecstatic. The Yankees again have a Soto in Rice — and you can’t beat the price.
Rodriguez to start Sunday
The Yankees altered their pitching plans for Sunday’s series finale by calling up Elmer Rodriguez from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to make the start and bumping Ryan Weathers to Monday against the Blue Jays in the Bronx. Will Warren is scheduled to start on Tuesday.
Rodriguez has a 5.19 ERA after his first two MLB starts, both against the Rangers. He struggled with his command, allowing eight walks in 8 2/3 innings.
Fried’s diagnosis confirmed
The Yankees announced that Los Angeles-based orthopedist Neal ElAttrache, who was consulted for a second opinion, agreed with the diagnosis on Fried’s left elbow bone bruise after reviewing the MRI results.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
