NEW YORK — The last time two Yankees hitters each reached 16 home runs before their team’s 50th game, Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House.
That was 1956. The sluggers were Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra. The Yankees were the undisputed kings of baseball.
Seventy years later, Aaron Judge and Ben Rice have matched that mark. Rice hit his 16th homer of the season on Tuesday night, a go-ahead two-run blast in the fifth inning, as the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 at Yankee Stadium. Judge entered the game already at 16.
The record is a compelling footnote. What Rice is doing beyond the home run column is the real headline.
Rice leads baseball, not just the Yankees
Two months into the 2026 season, Ben Rice leads every hitter in baseball by multiple key measures.
His OPS stands at 1.074. His wRC+ is 192. Both figures top the sport. For comparison, Aaron Judge carries an OPS of .980 and a wRC+ of 169. On most Yankees teams, those numbers would be the best on the roster. Right now, they rank second.
Rice is hitting .297 with 33 RBIs in 40 starts. He has reached base in 34 of those games. Of his 46 hits, 26 have gone for extra bases, including 10 doubles and 16 home runs. He is on pace for 53 home runs over a full season.
His slugging percentage, OPS, and wRC+ all lead the major leagues. Rice is not riding a hot streak. He is redefining who anchors the Yankees lineup.
Pedro Martinez issues a warning
The national baseball world has caught up to what Yankees fans have watched all spring. Eight-time All-Star and 2004 World Series champion Pedro Martinez addressed Ben Rice before Tuesday’s game on the Turner broadcast, and he did not mince words.
Martinez pointed back to a prediction he made weeks earlier and stood fully behind it.
“Remember what I told you?” Martinez said. “I told you he was going to be probably the biggest rival he was going to have in the American League for MVP. I told you that. Ben Rice is going to be the one that’s going to take votes away from Aaron Judge.”
Martinez then went into the specific skills that make him believe Rice can sustain this run.
“He can turn on a fastball and hit breaking balls,” Martinez said. “He’s patient, and he’s got a great lineup behind him. I don’t think this kid is going to panic. Yankee Stadium is perfect for him. I think he’s going to be the biggest rival Aaron Judge has on his own team.”
Martinez also gave Rice credit for his glove, a part of the game that often gets overlooked in the power conversation.
“Ben Rice: He’s playing defense at a high level. He’s not just a 1st baseman but is playing really good defense,” Martinez said. “I’m really impressed with this kid. He’s going to give Judge a run for his money.”
Judge is not struggling. He is tied second in the AL in home runs and ranks in the top 10 in RBIs with 30. He is firmly in the AL MVP conversation. But Rice has made that conversation far more complicated for the Yankees captain.
| Player | Pos. | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Ben Rice | 1B | 44 | 155 | 36 | 46 | 10 | 0 | 16 | 33 | 25 | 45 | 2 | .297 | .397 | .671 | 1.068 |
| Aaron Judge | RF | 49 | 176 | 40 | 46 | 8 | 0 | 16 | 30 | 37 | 61 | 5 | .261 | .395 | .580 | .975 |
All stats as of May 20, 2026.
The go-ahead homer against the Blue Jays
Rice backed up Martinez’s words Tuesday night in The Bronx.
The Yankees trailed 3-0. Ryan McMahon snapped an 0-for-24 skid with a three-run opposite-field homer off Dylan Cease in the fourth to tie it. Rice handled the fifth.
Trent Grisham walked. Rice worked the count to 2-0. Cease threw a 98 mph fastball, up and in. Rice put it over the right-center wall. Two-run homer. Yankees led 5-3. Four Rice homers in the 10 days since Judge last went deep.
Rice described the mindset behind the production when asked by reporters after the game.
“You always have to go up there with confidence, no matter the situation or who you’re facing,” Rice said. “That’s always been one of the biggest things for me: going up there with a confident attitude and the mentality that I’m going to do damage.”
Rice was not done. In the seventh, he ranged left on a grounder down the first base line, dove to snag it, and flipped to Jake Bird for the out. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said it was a critical defensive play in protecting the lead.
Rice and Judge power the Yankees offense
Tuesday’s win illustrated exactly why the Rice-Judge combination is the most dangerous one-two punch in the American League right now.
Aaron Judge set the comeback in motion. He drew a walk in the fourth after successfully challenging a called third strike through the automated ball-strike system. That put two runners on base and gave McMahon the three-run homer opportunity. It was Judge’s second ABS-reversed strikeout of the season.
Then Rice delivered the lead. The Yankees went from trailing 3-0 to leading 5-3 without a single easy out. Judge started the spark. Rice finished it.
Together, the two hitters are doing things to opposing pitching staffs that Yankees lineups have not done in decades.
But the production does not exist in isolation. Judge is protecting Rice. Rice is protecting Judge. Neither pitcher gets a clean at-bat to work around. Every lineup card the Yankees face must account for two legitimate MVP-caliber threats in the same order.
Rice spoke after the game about what it means to be part of a Yankees lineup built around mutual trust and shared production.
“That’s what makes baseball fun,” Rice said. “Of course we’d rather it be a nice 1-2-3 [inning], but the reality is it’s not always going to be that way. When they’re threatening with runners in scoring position and trying to tie the game up, it’s our job to lock it in and stop them. That’s what makes it fun.”
Since the start of the season, the Yankees are 30-19. They have won 11 of their last 12 home games. The offense has been the engine, and the engine has two cylinders firing at an unusually high level at the same moment.
Mantle and Berra’s 1956 record is a window into Yankees history. Rice’s 2026 season is a window into something the Yankees have not had in a long time: a genuine rival for the best hitter in the lineup.
What do you think? Can Rice upstage Judge as AL MVP or home run leader this season?
