Roger Rubin: Should the Yankees move Ben Rice to catcher and possibly mess with a good thing?
Yankees' Ben Rice catching against the Philadelphia Phillies at Yankee Stadium on July 26, 2025. Credit: Brad Penner
The Yankees are saying all the right things in the wake of the news that they will be without three-time MVP Aaron Judge for weeks and maybe months.
They say they still have enough high-performing players to keep on winning, and that’s probably true. They point to 2023, when Judge missed more than seven weeks to a toe injury after a collision with the wall at Dodger Stadium — sending them to a 19-23 slide — and say this team’s depth makes it better equipped to handle his absence. That’s also true. And they say the starting rotation has been spectacular and that Judge’s absence doesn’t affect that. That is true, too.
But during these four to six weeks that Judge is going to be sidelined before he gets more imaging of that fractured right rib, the Yankees cannot afford to have unproductive spots in their batting order. And the hole at catcher — a season-long issue — is more of an eyesore now than ever.
This is a situation that demands the Yankees consider preparing slugger Ben Rice — the team’s MVP to date — to start catching some games, as he did last season.
The club may be able to find a more productive-hitting catcher in another organization, but short of that, using Rice as the catcher in some games will become the measure that creates their best non-Judge lineup.
No team in the American League gets less production out of its catchers than the Yankees. Entering play Saturday, their backstops ranked last in the league in batting average (.169), OPS (.522), RBIs (14) and the advanced metric wRC+ (43; 100 is the MLB average).
Beyond the numbers, the Yankees’ catching situation took on a very bad look in the 22 hours before Saturday’s rainout against the Red Sox at the Stadium.
Backup catcher J.C. Escarra was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and .227-hitting Ali Sanchez, a righthanded hitter, was called up and given Saturday’s start behind the plate.
Finally, shortly before the scheduled first pitch, starting catcher Austin Wells was placed on the 10-day injured list with cervical headaches, requiring the return of Escarra. Wells will undergo a battery of tests to determine a course of action, manager Aaron Boone said.
Those were a lot of moves. How much of a difference they will make feels negligible. Wells (.533 OPS) and Escarra (.493 OPS) — both lefthanded hitters — made all the starts and made catching production an issue. Sanchez looked like a possible upgrade only because he’s a righty hitter.
Rice was moved to first base for this season to keep his bat in the lineup and has emerged as one of baseball’s best hitters with a .305/.398/.652 slash line. He was leading the AL in extra-base hits (35), was second in OPS (1.050) and was tied for third in home runs (18). There is an argument to be made that asking him to do anything different from what he is doing right now is messing with something good.
“Obviously, you know what he continues to evolve into as an offensive player in this league, [it’s] a little more challenging right now to say ‘I want to get him in for a couple innings in a particular game,’ ’’ manager Aaron Boone said. “It doesn’t mean we won’t do it, doesn’t mean we won’t get to that point, but it’s not on the board right now.”
There is some time to figure out a way to get Rice ready to take some catching starts because Giancarlo Stanton (calf) might be two weeks away as he continues to upgrade his running program and because Jasson Dominguez (shoulder sprain) already is on a minor-league rehab assignment.
When they are back, the very best lineup the Yankees can play has Stanton at DH, Paul Goldschmidt at first base and Rice behind the plate. Rice at catcher is the only way all three can play.
Rice has been catching some bullpen sessions and attending game-planning meetings with Wells and Escarra, but he hasn’t had to shoulder the mental burden of in-game strategy since he caught games last season. And catching takes a greater physical toll on a body.
Asked about that toll, Boone said, “It’s a concern . . . Do we want to do that with what he means to the middle of our lineup? So we’ll continue to evaluate that and ultimately decide if the risk is worth it.”
Is it ideal to move Rice behind the plate for some games and tinker with what is working? Definitely not. Would it give the Yankees, as constructed, the most potent lineup they can put out after the middle of June? Absolutely.
The Yankees were 35-25 in 2023 when Judge missed significant time to injury; it put them on a course to finish 82-80 and miss the postseason. The Yankees are correct that this group has a higher ceiling and cannot afford to have something like that happen again.
Notes & quotes: Cam Schlittler will start Sunday against Boston as scheduled. Ranger Suarez will pitch for the Red Sox. Saturday’s scheduled starter, Will Warren, will pitch Monday in Cleveland . . . Saturday’s postponed game will be played as part of a split doubleheader on Aug. 29.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
