Worth the Risk? Debating if Yankees Should Use Ben Rice to Solve Their Catcher Problem

Having Ben Rice catch again is one way for all the pieces to fit on the Yankees once Giancarlo Stanton is healthy.

Ben Rice has played catcher before. Will the Yankees ask him to do it again in the near future? | Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

There are positives and negatives of Giancarlo Stanton returning to the Yankees. The positive is that Stanton should be Cooperstown-bound, and his bat still has more pop than anybody envisioned he'd have a few years ago when he walked out of the 2023 season with a sup-.700 OPS. The negative is that he has no defensive prowess left due to years of injuries and clogs up the designated hitter spot in the lineup.

Even with Aaron Judge missing the next month-plus of baseball, this leaves the Yankees in a position where they can't start Ben Rice, Paul Goldschmidt, and Giancarlo Stanton all at once. The 2026 version of Goldy is very different from the 2025 version.

These days, Goldschmidt looks like the version of himself who played for the Diamondbacks, hitting .276/.360/.528 with a 148 wRC+ and 1.3 WAR, according to Fangraphs. He has seven homers, which is close to the 10 he had last year, and he has already smashed his total WAR from 2025.

If there's one thing the Yankees can do to remedy this situation, it's to have Ben Rice catch. It's an idea that seems fine on paper, but it's more nuanced than that.

A rotation in flux?

Rice is a gamer, and he'd play any position that is asked of him, but for as bad as Austin Wells has been at the plate—and it's hard to be as bad as that when you're playing every day—what Wells does behind the dish is valuable. Does the pitching staff suffer with such a dramatic change?

A big part of why the Yankees have a 37-25 record and are 0.5 games out of first place in the American League East is the starting rotation. Keep in mind that this is a staff that, for the last two years, hasn't ever watched Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, and Carlos Rodón pitch together. Yet this season, their starters have a combined 3.07 ERA, the second-lowest in baseball.

Behind the dish, calling games for the majority of the season has been Wells.

Austin Wells's pitch-calling is a big reason why the Yankees might want to keep him as their starting catcher. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

As talented as this rotation is, given the injuries it has dealt with, Wells should get a ton of credit for where their starters are. Having Rice in there for Wells surely upgrades the offense, and that's the thing everybody sees up front, but do things get thrown into flux a bit if now he's the primary game caller after not doing so at all this season?

There are five teams with a rotation that has a 7.0 WAR, and the Yankees and Dodgers lead the way with a 7.4 WAR. It just seems like something they shouldn't mess with, even if Rice upgrades the offense, since Wells has become a glorified Martin Maldonado—a far cry from what everybody expected of him coming up through the minors.

Defensive metrics

There are other factors at play as well. Wells is a 93rd-percentile framer with plus-4 framing runs saved and a 55th-percentile blocker. He has plus-1 block above average, according to Baseball Savant.

Last season, Rice was poor at both. He had minus-1 framing runs saved and minus-2 blocks above average.

Ben Rice's defense as a catcher leaves something to be desired. | Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

Another factor is what happens to Rice's bat if he is suddenly thrust into a catching role. Ball players are creatures of habit, and whatever his habits are these days, they have led him to be one of the best bats in the sport.

It was just a 29-game sample size, but last year, he did hold his own back there. His average may have fallen a bit, but he hit .221/.342/.537 with six homers. The question for this season is whether his Judgian numbers can hold up if he is suddenly shifted to catcher.

Whether Rice wins AL MVP or even participates in the MLB All-Star Game remains to be seen, but at a minimum, he should be a finalist with the way he has swung his bat. He's hitting .300/.393/.638 with a 181 wRC+. Considering that he's another strength of the team, catching may hurt the mojo there.

There isn't an easy solution here once Stanton is back in the mix. Thankfully, there is time.