Ben Rice Wasn’t The Yankees’ Chosen One & That’s The Point

The Yankees love a prospect with a story they can sell. Just ask Anthony Volpe’s family. Seriously though, a first-round pick. A familiar name. A future star before he’s taken a major league swing.

Ben Rice wasn’t that guy.

Rice played just 30 college games at Dartmouth after the pandemic wrecked his schedule. The Yankees took him in the 12th round of the 2021 draft, 363rd overall. Nobody was clearing a path for him to the Bronx. That’s an important line… Nobody.

The only reason the Yankees took a chance on him was that area scout Matt Hyde noticed his strong performance in wood-bat summer collegiate leagues, where he got the reps he missed in college. Hyde saw power, followed the kid.  It wasn’t a long, drawn out courtship, it was a guess. Let’s call it what it was. Well, I am glad Hyde guessed right. 

But here’s what drives me crazy: Rice had to make himself impossible to ignore. The bat was real. The work was real. Yet he came into the organization as a 12th-round pick, while the Yankees have spent years telling us who their special prospects are.

Anthony Volpe. First-round pick. New Jersey kid. Yankees fan. Great story. The organization praised his tools and built enormous expectations around him from the start. And yes, his amateur résumé gave them reasons to draft him. But at some point, the story has to step aside and the results have to take over. He just isn’t what Hyde claimed he was. That’s a fact.

And that’s my problem with the Yankees. Once they decide a player is a favorite, they seem determined to be proven right. When a guy like Rice comes along, he has to do the proving for them… and boy, has he done it.

Rice became a 2026 All-Star by doing what good hitters do: showing up, taking his swings and producing. He has power, he can hit, and he carries himself like a guy who still remembers what it felt like just to get drafted. He said he was excited to be picked in the 12th round and wanted to make the most of his chance. That’s the kind of attitude you want in your clubhouse.

Matt Hyde guessed on Ben Rice, but Rice wasn’t even on the radar, not like Volpe. So, I mean sure, credit the scout, but credit Rice even more for breaking through and forcing a conversation.

Now I’d like the Yankees to learn something from Rice. A first-round label doesn’t win games. A prospect ranking doesn’t drive in runs. And being somebody’s favorite doesn’t mean a damn thing once the pitcher lets go of the ball.

Ben Rice earned his place the hard way. Maybe it’s time the Yankees started valuing that as much as the players they picked first.