NEW YORK — Ben Rice arrived in the Bronx as a player with an unusual résumé and no guarantee of permanence. A Dartmouth catcher taken in the 12th round of the 2021 MLB Draft, he had only 30 college games in his final two seasons because of the pandemic and entered pro ball without the pedigree usually attached to a future middle-of-the-order threat.
Three years into his major league career, that background now looks less like trivia and more like the starting point of one of the Yankees’ biggest player-development wins in years.
Rice has spent 2026 turning opportunity into production with the kind of consistency the Yankees could not treat as a temporary hot streak. He has handled first base and designated hitter duties, stayed near the top of the lineup and supplied power over a full season instead of in short bursts. By late September, his at-bats had become one of the most reliable parts of New York’s offense.
That made Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium more than another late-season win. The Yankees beat the Rays 9-2, but Rice’s individual night carried its own significance. He collected three hits, drove the ball with authority to different parts of the field and continued a September stretch that has pushed his breakout into franchise-history territory.
The Yankees already knew Rice had become an everyday force. His season had already included an All-Star selection, a career high in runs and a jump from promising young hitter to lineup fixture. He also carried that production into September instead of fading under the workload of his first full season. Each late-season plate appearance was adding evidence that the breakout was sustainable. What happened against Tampa Bay put a number on just how far he has traveled.
Rice reaches 41 and joins rare Yankees company
Rice hit his 40th and 41st home runs of the season Wednesday, becoming the 13th player in Yankees history to produce a 40-homer season. His second blast moved him into a tie for the American League lead with Pete Alonso, Yordan Alvarez and Junior Caminero with four regular-season games remaining.
The milestone also placed Rice in a much smaller Yankees group. He joined Joe DiMaggio and Aaron Judge as the only players in franchise history to hit 40 home runs within their first three major league seasons.
Since the amateur draft began in 1965, Rice and Judge are the only Yankees draft picks to hit 40 home runs in a season for New York. Rice was selected No. 363 overall in 2021. He hit seven homers as a rookie in 2024, 26 last season and now has 74 through three seasons.
Rice said the round-number milestone became meaningful only once it came within reach.
“It’s a cool milestone,” Rice said. “It’s not something you go into the season really aiming for. You don’t really know how it’s going to go. But as I was approaching that number, it’s definitely something I was hoping to achieve.”
The power spike is only part of Rice’s breakout
Rice’s season is not being carried by home runs alone. Baseball Savant’s updated 2026 line lists him at .263 with a .362 on-base percentage, .537 slugging percentage and .899 OPS through 151 games. He has 148 hits, 103 runs and 97 RBIs.
StatMuse lists Rice with a 150 wRC+, putting him among MLB’s most productive hitters, not merely among the Yankees’ best bats.
His home runs have also arrived in high-leverage spots. Rice has 16 go-ahead homers and three game-tying homers. Nineteen of his 41, or 46.3%, have either put the Yankees in front or pulled them even.
Rice is also the fifth different Yankees player since 2013 to score at least 100 runs in a season, joining Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu and Juan Soto.
Rice blows past Boone’s spring prediction
Boone predicted Rice would hit 39 home runs this season. But Rice made sure the manager heard about it after the first one and again after the second. Boone had deliberately picked a number just below 40, hoping to push his young slugger.
Rice said the milestone became a target only as it came within reach.
“It’s a cool milestone,” Rice said. “It’s not something you go into the season really aiming for.”
Judge points to trait behind Rice’s rise
The progression has been visible inside the Yankees clubhouse as much as it has been on the scoreboard. Judge, whose own early-career power surge created the most obvious modern comparison, focused less on Rice’s home-run total than the routine behind it.
Asked what has separated Rice, Judge pointed to consistency.
“I always tell guys, the difference between Minor Leaguers and big leaguers is the consistency. He’s one of the best,” Judge said of Rice. “I can look up at the clock and I know exactly where he’s going to be – in the cage, the training room, the weight room. Every single day, this guy is a machine.”
Judge also described Rice as a complete hitter who keeps adjusting. Rice’s 2024 rookie line was .171/.264/.349 before his production climbed sharply in each of the next two seasons.
Rice enters October as a centerpiece, not a surprise
Rice’s next benchmark is already within reach. He sits three RBIs shy of 100, and the AL home-run race remains tied entering the final stretch of the regular season.
The pursuits measure how dramatically Rice’s status has changed. He began as a 12th-round pick trying to create a role. He now enters October as one of the Yankees hitters opponents must plan around first.
Rice’s route is unusual. His rise from Dartmouth to 41 home runs gives New York a homegrown middle-of-the-order bat found well outside the early rounds and developed into an All-Star within three major league seasons.
Wednesday’s two swings made the history obvious. The larger story has taken all season. Rice has turned a breakout into sustained production, moved beside DiMaggio and Judge in the Yankees record book and given New York a new offensive centerpiece just as the postseason begins.
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