SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Ben Rice settled one debate at first base for the New York Yankees this season. The left-handed slugger hit 41 home runs, made his first All-Star team and pulled into a four-way tie for the American League lead in late September.
He topped manager Aaron Boone’s spring prediction by two.
The next debate sits one rung below him.
Paul Goldschmidt, who handled much of the Yankees’ work against left-handers, is an impending free agent. The 39-year-old wants to play in 2027.
That leaves the Yankees with an open question behind their All-Star. Their offseason began early after a Tampa Bay sweep in the AL Division Series.
One name in the Arizona Fall League is now pushing his way into that conversation.
He did not arrive with a top-prospect label. He arrived as a senior sign.
Kyle West grew up in Hedgesville, West Virginia, a town of roughly 300 people. He starred at the same high school as Guardians outfielder Chase DeLauter, then moved from Division II University of Charleston to West Virginia University.
The Yankees took the 6-foot-2, 195-pound first baseman in the 13th round of the 2025 MLB Draft, 404th overall.
His first full season with the Yankees’ High-A affiliate in Hudson Valley carried both extremes. West hit 20 home runs, drove in 75 runs and stole 20 bases. He became the first player in Renegades franchise history to reach 20-20, one of only 59 minor leaguers to get there in 2026.
He also hit .226 with a .694 OPS and struck out 160 times in 124 games, a 29.8 percent strikeout rate.
Two blasts that cleared 450 feet
The power showed up in full Monday at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.
Playing for the Salt River Rafters against the Surprise Saguaros, West went 3-for-4 with two home runs, a double, a walk and a hit-by-pitch in a lopsided Rafters win.
His first homer left the bat at 112 mph and traveled 462 feet to right-center field. It stands as the longest home run of the 2026 Fall League season and the fifth-longest in league history, according to the league’s official account.
His second homer came off the bat at 109.2 mph and carried 450 feet.
The outburst gave West three homers in two games. Through 13 games, the Yankees prospect is hitting .282/.408/.538 with three homers, 10 RBIs and seven runs scored.
The raw strength was no secret to the Yankees. West’s 90th percentile exit velocity of 109.7 mph during the regular season ranked third in the system.
West says the fix is about loft
The missing piece was trajectory. West posted a 43.4 percent ground-ball rate at Hudson Valley, leaving too much damage on the infield grass.
Looking back on 124 regular-season games, West went straight to the swing-and-miss.
“I punched out a lot, you can look at the stats,” West said.
He is rooming with Yankees top prospect Dax Kilby, MLB Pipeline’s No. 78 overall prospect, and soaking up input from coaches. Asked what he is chasing, he pointed to one tool.
“No one’s ever a finished product but you always learn, so I think now it’s really growing into myself and understanding what my superpower is,” West said. “To me, I hit the ball very hard, so I’m trying to maximize that by getting more balls in the air because more balls in the air gives them a chance to leave the yard.”
West said the swing he wants already showed up in stretches this summer. Repeating it is the test.
“There were times this year where I was on top of the world and everything was in the air,” West said. “I have it in there. It’s just a matter of being super-consistent with it.”
The hidden number behind the 462-foot blast
Monday was not a spike in contact quality. It was a change in where that contact went.
Entering play Oct. 22, West had put six balls in play at 108 mph or harder, tied with Reds prospect Yerlin Confidan for the most in the Fall League. None of those six cleared the fence.
Within his next two games, three balls did.
The strikeout picture has moved, too. West has 10 strikeouts and seven walks in 13 Fall League games. Working from his slash line, that comes to roughly one strikeout every five plate appearances, down from nearly three in every 10 at Hudson Valley.
His isolated power in Arizona sits at .256, the gap between his .538 slugging percentage and .282 average.
The sample is small, about 50 plate appearances. Still, it speaks directly to the two issues that defined his summer.
Where West fits behind Rice
The Yankees have struck late in the draft before. Rice was a 12th-round pick in 2021 and now anchors the Yankees lineup. Cam Schlittler, a 2022 seventh-rounder, became a top Yankees starter.
West, who turns 24 soon, is nowhere near that tier yet. He has not played above High-A, and Double-A Somerset is the next rung on the ladder.
His emergence adds Yankees depth behind Rice, not a challenge to him. West has also played left field, widening his paths through the Yankees system.
The Fall League runs into November. The Fall Stars Game is Nov. 8 at Salt River Fields, and the championship game is Nov. 14 at Peoria Sports Complex.
For now, a 13th-round pick from a town of 300 owns the longest home run in Arizona this fall.
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