BRONX, N.Y. — The Yankees gave Giancarlo Stanton a day off Sunday. They sat the 36-year-old designated hitter after he started six consecutive games, and in his place, slotted Ben Rice into the lineup at DH and moved him to the top of the order.
It was a rotation move. A day of rest for an aging slugger. Routine stuff in April.
What it looked like, though, was a preview. And the more Rice hits, the more that preview is starting to look like a plan.
Rice batted leadoff for the first time in 2026, walked ahead of an Aaron Judge home run in the first inning, then hit his own eighth homer of the season in the second. The Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 7-0 for a three-game sweep. Rice finished 1-for-3 with two walks and five total plate appearances.
Rice is hitting everyone, and the stats prove it
Rice entered Sunday slashing .338/.476/.800 with a 1.243 OPS. He has eight home runs in 22 games. He is demolishing right-handed pitching and, increasingly, left-handed pitching too. Against righties this season, his OPS sits at 1.255. Against lefties, it is 1.332.
That second number is significant. The Yankees have periodically kept Rice on the bench when left-handers start, reasoning that they prefer to use him as an impact pinch-hitter off the bench. Sunday, facing Cole Ragans, one of the most effective left-handed starters in the American League, Rice drew a walk and homered. It was his third home run off a left-handed pitcher this season.
Manager Aaron Boone was asked after the game whether the platoon arrangement made sense anymore. He was measured but clear.
“The bottom line is, he’s turning into — or even is — one of the really outstanding hitters in this league,” Boone said.
Rice, asked how he approaches at-bats against lefties given the limited opportunities, framed it simply. He is not overcomplicating the situation.
“I just got to continue to get the reps and continue to swing at good pitches, work good at-bats,” Rice said. “That’s all I can do.”
Aaron Judge, watching from the on-deck circle and then the batter’s box behind him, offered a more direct endorsement of where Rice stands in the league right now.
“Quality at-bat after quality at-bat,” Judge said. “Doesn’t matter who’s on the mound or the situation. He’s top of the league right now.”
The main news: Stanton’s numbers raise a real question
There is a reason this week felt different. Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees’ $19 million designated hitter in 2026, has not matched the production that carried him through a strong second half of the 2025 postseason. Through 20 games this season, the veteran is batting .240 with a .296 on-base percentage, a .656 OPS, two home runs and 10 RBI.
Those numbers are not disqualifying for a veteran hitter six weeks into an April. But they are a contrast. While Stanton has been managed carefully, Rice has been producing at an elite level and forcing the Yankees to find him at-bats wherever they can.
The contract picture sharpens the conversation. The Yankees owe Stanton $19 million in 2026 and $15 million in 2027. There is a team option for 2028 with a $10 million buyout. Unless the Yankees choose to exercise that option, Stanton’s time in pinstripes ends after the 2027 season. That is not far away.
Rice, by contrast, is earning $845,800 in 2026 on a pre-arbitration deal. He is 27 years old, Harvard-educated (Dartmouth, actually) and physically built for a long career. His 93.3 mph average exit velocity ranked ninth in the majors last season. His hard-hit percentage ranked seventh. These are not fluky numbers from a soft schedule.
Rice has the tools to be an everyday DH and more
The Yankees have used Rice at first base and behind the plate as a catcher, giving Boone roster flexibility that Stanton does not provide. In 2025, Rice made 50 starts at first base, 26 starts at catcher and 48 starts at DH. That versatility means there is no awkward moment when the two need to coexist in a lineup. Rice can simply move.
MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, covering the Yankees for the league’s official site, called Rice a future All-Star in a recent piece on early-season developments to believe in. He described Rice as a left-handed counterpart to Judge, projecting continued development now that he is getting more reps against left-handed pitching.
The Yankees have not suggested publicly that Stanton’s role is at risk. Stanton is a known postseason performer: he hit seven home runs in last year’s World Series run and won ALCS MVP honors. That track record carries real weight inside the organization.
But the math is becoming harder to ignore. The Yankees are 8-1 this season when two or more players homer in the same game. That record lives and dies with Rice and Judge. Every day Rice hits, the conversation about what the Yankees’ DH situation looks like in 2027 and beyond becomes more pointed.
Boone: Reasons to sit Rice are shrinking
Rice’s leadoff experiment Sunday did not come with a guarantee attached. Boone said the move was situational, driven by the matchup against Ragans and off days in the lineup. Rice would not typically bat leadoff.
Still, by the end of the afternoon, Boone had circled back to the same conclusion he keeps arriving at. There are not many reasons left to keep Rice out of any lineup against any pitcher.
“I like him pretty much against everyone,” Boone said. He added that lineup decisions involve more than just handedness splits.
That is a significant shift from where things stood at the start of the season, when Rice’s opportunities against lefties were being rationed like a precious resource. Three weeks in, the rationing has quietly ended.
Stanton remains a Yankee, under contract and capable of a defining postseason moment. But Rice is making it harder, week by week, to see how the math works beyond 2027. The clock on Stanton’s tenure is ticking. And Rice is the reason the Yankees might not need to mourn it much when it stops.
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