Throughout their century of dominance, nice Yankees groups have usually been outlined by their dynamic duos: Ruth and Gehrig. Mantle and Maris. Jeter and A-Rod. And, for one superb season, Judge and Soto.
In pairing Aaron Judge and Juan Soto collectively in 2024, the Yankees teamed up arguably the 2 greatest hitters within the sport. The outcomes arrived instantly: the pair mixed for 99 dwelling runs and lifted New York to its first World Series look in 15 years. When Soto signed with the rival Mets last year, it left Judge with no Robin to his Batman.
It seems, the following operating mate to help Judge power the Yankees’ lineup was already within the constructing.
Ben Rice loved a powerful 2025 season, his first as an on a regular basis participant. But he’s taken his sport to new heights to start ‘26, and looks to be the next budding star to give the Yankees a fearsome one-two punch.
Through Tuesday’s video games, the 27-year-old first baseman led all certified hitters with a 230 wRC+. His league-leading .461 on-base proportion is powered by a 20.2% stroll price. His .754 slugging proportion, additionally tops in baseball, is backed up by the league’s third-highest hard-hit price (64.4%).
Through 23 staff video games, Rice is main the staff in fWAR, with 1.4 in comparison with Judge’s 1.0. Should he sustain that tempo, it will mark the primary time Judge did not lead the team in fWAR for a full season since 2019 (DJ LeMahieu, with 5.7 in comparison with Judge’s 4.2).
Trusting the method
Last yr, Rice was one thing of a Statcast darling. He put up a .255/.337/.499 slash line with 26 homers and 65 RBIs, good for a 133 wRC+. But his underlying stats indicated there was extra within the tank.
Among 251 certified hitters, Rice had the eighth-biggest distinction between his anticipated wOBA (.394) and his precise wOBA (.358). And whereas he was the Yankees’ second-most productive hitter over the course of the season (by wRC+), he nonetheless hadn’t earned supervisor Aaron Boone’s belief fairly sufficient to begin towards left-handed pitching, as he made simply 15 begins towards southpaws all yr.
Through the primary few weeks of 2026, although, Rice’s method is yielding the outcomes that final yr’s knowledge hinted at. He’s hitting higher than .300 towards all pitch varieties (fastballs, offspeed pitches and breaking balls) and is leaning even additional into his id as a pure masher, lifting the ball into the air to the pull facet at a 26.7% price, the best of his profession. He’s already hit three homers off of lefties this yr in comparison with seven in all of 2025, and because of this, he’s getting platooned much less and fewer.
Projecting a participant’s “on pace for” stats this early is a idiot’s errand; it’s clearly too quickly within the calendar to extrapolate any numbers from participant off to sizzling begins. But if we simply evaluate Rice’s under-the-hood stats to Soto’s lone season in pinstripes, Rice holds up favorably with elite firm.
2026 Rice vs. 2024 Soto
Stat | Rice (2026) | Soto (2024) |
|---|---|---|
xwOBA | .461 | .463 |
xBA | .299 | .310 |
xSLG | .663 | .655 |
Barrel % | 22.2% | 19.7% |
Hard-Hit % | 64.4% | 57.0% |
Chase % | 20.8% | 18.3% |
In search of Judge’s operating mate
Immediately after Judge burst onto the scene together with his 52-homer rookie season in 2017, the Yankees tried to pair him with one other intimidating slugger. The staff added Giancarlo Stanton the next offseason, recent off Stanton’s 59-homer, MVP-winning season with the Marlins, clearly in an effort to offer the Bronx Bombers their modern-day Bash Bros.
In the close to decade that adopted, although, the plan by no means totally materialized. Judge and Stanton might by no means sync up their wholesome, productive seasons within the early goings. Once Judge ascended to his present degree of dominance, Stanton’s accidents caught as much as him. He final reached the 500-plate look mark in 2021, and whereas the facility continues to be there, he’s amassed a complete of three.4 fWAR since then.
That’s led to far too many Yankees lineups the place it’s felt like Judge was getting the Barry Bonds therapy. From 2021 to ‘25, Judge was intentionally walked 86 times, tying with José Ramírez (another star hitter with little lineup support) for the MLB lead. Over that span, Judge hit a ridiculous .306/.426/.649 with a league-best 42.8 fWAR. The Yankees hitter with the second-best fWAR total during that run? That would be Gleyber Torres (9.4), who left for Detroit before last season.
During that five-year span, Judge (four times) and Soto (in 2024) are the only Yankees hitters to post a 5.0-fWAR season or better. Rice looks to be on his way to joining them: he put up a 3.0 mark last year, and his improvements in the batter’s field mixed with an anticipated improve in enjoying time ought to allow him to provide 3.2 extra fWAR over the course of the following 5 months.
A future cornerstone
Rice’s manufacturing is much more of a godsend for the Yankees contemplating how little they received at first base within the years that preceded his arrival. From 2021 to ‘24, Yankees first basemen ranked 21st in wRC+ (99), 27th in batting average (.233) and 28th in isolated power (.146). The rotating group of LeMahieu, Anthony Rizzo, Jake Bauers and Luke Voit could not claim the spot for long, and left New York weak in what’s usually a staff’s most hitter-friendly place.
And not like Soto, Rice appears to be like to be right here for the lengthy haul. He gained’t be eligible without spending a dime company till after the 2030 marketing campaign, giving the Yankees the prospect to maintain him in pinstripes till not less than his age-31 season.
By then, Judge shall be 38 and may have only one yr left on his present contract. Will that be the time Rice takes over because the face of the franchise? It’s far too quickly to make such claims, in fact. But it’s clear that the Yankees have one other star on their fingers—and with him, maybe one other prolific duo to anchor their lineup for years to come back.
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