Ben Rice will get to don the famous tools of ignorance on Wednesday night.
That’s right: The New York Yankees slugger is making his first career start at catcher.
Rice has played 7.2 innings of catcher in substitute appearances at the MLB level before this start. He came up through the minor leagues as a catcher, though.
The move has been pushed into action by the return of Giancarlo Stanton.
That’s because Stanton can only be a designated hitter at this point in his career. Until this week, Rice was the DH almost every game as Stanton sat out with elbow problems.
But now that Stanton is back, the Yankees need to find other ways to get Rice’s bat in the lineup. He already played first base once to move Paul Goldschmidt to the bench, but that’s not a feasible long-term solution.
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This time, Rice gets the catching start and Austin Wells sits.
It remains to be seen whether it’ll work or not, but it’s worth a shot.
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Trends worth tracking include Rice’s blocking and the tendencies of other teams to try and steal off of him. Considering that the Yankees are struggling to score right now, they really can’t be giving up too many extra bases in the running game.
But if Rice keeps hitting, the change will probably be worth it, anyway.
It shouldn’t be an every night thing, but for at least this game, Rice is behind the plate in a calculated gamble by New York.
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