NEW YORK — Ben Rice spent Friday night rescuing the Yankees. His go-ahead, two-run homer into the short porch lifted New York past the Twins 5-2 at Yankee Stadium and ended a seven-game losing streak that had swallowed the team’s grip on the AL East.
The homer snapped a 2-for-25 slump that had tracked the losing streak almost exactly. It also capped a busy week for Rice that had nothing to do with the standings.
While the Yankees were stumbling through their worst stretch of the season, two of the club’s most recognizable position players were making news away from the field, on the same platform, within about a day of each other.
Both announcements arrived on Instagram. Both tie a rising Yankees star to something bigger than a box score.
Rice revealed he is the face of a new Yankees apparel partnership with the clothing brand GOAT USA, while Jazz Chisholm Jr. announced that his charitable foundation has teamed up with the club for a fundraiser night at Yankee Stadium next month.
Rice becomes the face of a Yankees apparel line
Rice is serving as the lead ambassador for the collaboration between the Yankees and GOAT USA, a New York-based casual lifestyle brand founded a decade ago that has built a strong following in the city. The deal produced an exclusive collection of Yankees-themed apparel, and the first release is already on sale.
The first baseman shared the news himself with a promotional graphic on Instagram, where the collaborative post kept the announcement simple.
“Introducing the New York Yankees x GOAT USA Collection. The first release is now available!” the post read.
The deal extends a growing off-field portfolio for the 27-year-old. Rice already holds an endorsement with the food brand Ben’s Rice, a fit tailor-made for his name. Rice broke out fully in 2025, hitting .255 with 26 home runs and 65 RBIs, and he has since settled in as the Yankees’ everyday first baseman. Between the endorsement portfolio and the All-Star push, he has gone from an under-the-radar prospect to one of the more marketable young hitters in baseball in barely a calendar year.
Chisholm turns Aug. 5 into a foundation night
Jazz Chisholm‘s announcement points in a different direction. The second baseman revealed on Instagram that the Jazz Chisholm Foundation has partnered with the Yankees for a fundraiser at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 5.
Fans who purchase tickets through the link in the foundation’s Instagram bio will receive a Jazz Chisholm Foundation hat, and $13 from every ticket sold goes directly to the foundation. The hat-and-ticket structure gives fans a reason to show up beyond the game itself, and the $13 figure matches the No. 13 Chisholm wears for the Yankees.
The event feeds the mission the 28-year-old built the organization around. The foundation describes that mission as “empowering the youth through sports and education.”
Chisholm, a native of Nassau, Bahamas, created the foundation to give back to the communities that supported his rise, with a focus on underserved young people and families in the Bahamas, New York and Miami. The Aug. 5 night adds a Yankee Stadium stage to that work.
Two rising profiles on a team that needed good news
The timing says plenty about where both players stand. Rice has grown from a positionless bat into the anchor of the Yankees lineup during Aaron Judge’s injury absence. With the captain sidelined by a stress fracture in his first right rib, Rice’s bat has become the center of the offense. He entered the weekend hitting .269 with a .360 on-base percentage and a .922 OPS, all tracking toward career highs, and Friday’s blast was his 24th home run of the season.
The first baseman is also locked in a Phase 2 All-Star voting battle with Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to decide who starts at first base for the American League. A national apparel campaign will not hurt his name recognition at the ballot box.
Chisholm, acquired from the Marlins in a 2024 trade, is hitting .225 with 12 home runs, 33 RBIs and 26 stolen bases through 82 games. He entered the season openly chasing a 50-50 campaign in the mold of Shohei Ohtani’s 2025 run, a pace he has fallen behind, but his speed and energy have stayed central to the Yankees clubhouse identity.
For a franchise that spent two weeks generating nothing but injury updates and losing-streak coverage, two players expanding their brands counts as a rare stretch of positive headlines.
A collection on sale now and a date on the calendar
The GOAT USA collection is live, with the first Yankees release available and Rice fronting the campaign. Chisholm’s foundation night has a month of runway, with the Aug. 5 date falling two days after the trade deadline, when the Yankees hope to be selling playoff momentum rather than explanations. The club also gets a feel-good community event on the calendar during a summer when the organization could use the goodwill.
Both players were back at work Saturday, when the Yankees and Twins continued their holiday weekend series in the Bronx with rookie Brendan Beck making his first major league start at 1:35 p.m. ET.
The partnerships change nothing about the AL East race. They do signal that even in the middle of the season’s roughest patch, the Yankees‘ next generation of stars is building a presence that extends well beyond the field.
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