PITTSBURGH — What happened in the Grapefruit League has not stayed in the Grapefruit League, at least for Ben Rice.
After spending the spring smoking the ball, Rice has carried that over into the first week of the regular season, drilling the ball at will while making a jump up in the Yankees lineup.
Entering Saturday’s game, in which he was batting second in front of Aaron Judge, Rice was tied for first in the major leagues with an average exit velocity of 100 mph — even ahead of Judge’s 99.9 mph.
The sample size is still small, but the early returns have been encouraging.
“He’s killing the ball,” manager Aaron Boone said before Rice went 1-for-5, scalding a 104.4 mph single and 102.9 mph flyout, in a 10-4 win over the Pirates at PNC Park. “Just at-bat quality and how hard he’s hitting the ball consistently [has stood out].”
Rice finished Saturday batting .320 (8-for-23) with a 1.073 OPS — numbers that could have been even better if Pirates right fielder Andrew McCutchen didn’t rob him of extra bases Friday on a ball laced off the bat at 107.9 mph with the bases loaded.
But beyond the results, Rice’s underlying metrics offer hope that his impact at the plate could have some staying power — perhaps not to its current extent, but the Yankees would gladly take some version of it.
“I think it’s who he is — I think he’s a real hitter,” Boone said. “I’d even add last year to it. I know he had some struggles there, but we saw a lot of good in there too. And the ability to hit the ball with authority. That’s only grown. Obviously with how much he’s grown physically, and just gaining from that experience, I just feel like he’s a high-quality at-bat right now.”
Rice arrived in the big leagues last summer with a splash, hitting .294 with four home runs (three in one game against the Red Sox) with a .972 OPS through his first 17 games.
He cooled off from there, though, batting .109 with a .431 OPS and 39 strikeouts over his final 33 games, ending with a trip back to Triple-A.
Boone has maintained that Rice’s struggles were not as bad as they seemed because of how he was squaring up some balls that turned into outs — which his average exit velocity of 90 mph would support.
But in addition to bulking up his frame over the offseason — with the added muscle giving him some extra thump in the bat — Rice is also feeling more comfortable mentally this year.
“I think having the experience under my belt changes things a little bit,” Rice said. “I think I just feel more comfortable with the team and the big league environment. That helps.”
After batting eighth his first four games of this season, Rice hit leadoff on Thursday and Friday before hitting second (against a left-hander) on Saturday.
While Rice still wants to prove he can be a major league catcher, his main responsibility these days has been filling in at DH for the injured Giancarlo Stanton in addition to one start at first base to spell Paul Goldschmidt.
Stanton is still a ways away from returning from his elbow injuries, but if Rice is still drilling the ball like this when that happens, the Yankees will find a way to keep his lefty bat in the lineup.
“I know I’ve had some of our coaches say, ‘Man, he’s just got so much confidence,’ ” Boone said. “Understandably. If I’m hitting the ball like that, I’d probably feel pretty confident walking up there too. But I definitely think his confidence and his comfort has taken another step too, which is important.”
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