Yankees’ Ben Rice gets first hit in MLB debut: ‘totally surreal’

There are questions about the glove of the Yankees’ new temporary first baseman. He came through college and the system primarily as a catcher, and a scout referred to him as “more of a DH.”

There are fewer doubts about Ben Rice’s bat, and virtually none about his makeup.

In the wake of a right forearm fracture that will keep Anthony Rizzo off the field for around eight weeks, Rice was called up Tuesday, after just 52 career minor league starts at first, so the Yankees can see what the hot-hitting 25-year-old can do.

He performed immediately.

Rice drove a single into right field to load the bases in the third and grinned all the way to first base, getting his first hit out of the way.

“Just an unreal experience — totally surreal,” said Rice, who went 1-for-4 in the Yankees’ 4-2 win over the Orioles in The Bronx and debuted a rice-eating salute to the Bleacher Creatures’ roll call. “I’m going to remember it forever.”

The expectation is the lefty-swinging Rice will get plenty of at-bats against right-handed pitching, and he batted sixth against opposing righty Albert Suarez.

Even before the injury, there were wonders about Rizzo’s viability during a season in which his defense has taken a step back and his OPS is down to .630.

Rice will get a chance to show the Yankees he can run with the opportunity. The team likes the bat, the approach and the person.

“When you’ve been around big-league hitters for long periods of time, you watch a guy hit and you can tell that that’s a big-league at-bat,” said bench coach and acting manager Brad Ausmus, filling in for Aaron Boone for the early part of the game. “He’s taking the right pitches. He’s attacking the right pitches. He’s making the pitcher work, and Ben does that.”

Rice has done that ever since the Yankees grabbed him in the 12th round in 2021 out of Dartmouth — the same alma mater as Ausmus, who at the time texted GM Brian Cashman in appreciation for selecting another Big Green catcher.

Rice’s head coach at Dartmouth, Bob Whalen, raved about a strong swing from a former high school hockey star — “All those guys hit left-handed, and they’re all good low-ball hitters,” Whalen said about skaters-turned-hitters — raved about Rice’s work ethic, the tall and lean college catcher picking up yoga and an assortment of drills to help his hip mobility; and raved about the person the Yankees have promoted.

“The glass is always half full,” Whalen said over the phone. “He’s always having a good day. He’s a kid that practiced with, not just played with, really good energy and played hard.

“He had something that most, if not all, really good players have: He really wants to be good. He’s an active learner about things that can make him better.”

Whalen did not coach Rice as long as he wanted.

Rice started all seven games in 2020 before the pandemic ended that season.

COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the ’21 Ivy League campaign, too.

But even without games to play, Rice continued to find ways to impress.

He remained on campus in the early days of the pandemic and pestered his coach about how he could help the team.

“Coach, what do you want me to do?” Whalen remembers Rice asking, volunteering to work with whomever he could.

When Rice returned home to Massachusetts, he organized a group of Ivy League players, who were shut out of organized college ball, to continue training at a complex in Northborough.

“They called it the Rice League,” Whalen said. “They all just wanted a place to work out and keep going.”

The work paid off when the Yankees — through Northeast scouting supervisor Matt Hyde — discovered and drafted Rice.

He has moved steadily through the system since and escalated his rise last year.

He added power to his game in 2023, when he blasted 20 home runs in 73 minor league games, posted a fairly absurd 1.048 OPS combined between Low-A Tampa, High-A Hudson Valley and Double-A Somerset, and won the Yankees’ award for position player of the year.

This season he killed Double-A pitching before a promotion just a few weeks ago to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

He reached base 44 percent of the time and swatted three home runs in 11 games before his play — and Rizzo’s injury — prompted a FaceTime call from SWB manager Shelley Duncan at about 10 p.m. Monday: He was going to the big leagues.

An overjoyed Rice called his father first, and his mother and sister thankfully were nearby. Soon after he reached out to Whalen.

Rice said he “did my best” to get some sleep after the call.

Rice, a native of Cohasset, Mass., but who grew up a Yankees fan mostly because of Derek Jeter, walked into Yankee Stadium for the first time Tuesday and will get a chance to make it his longtime home.

There is belief about his bat and his personality, and there at least is hope about his glove.

An NL scout praised his dedication while adding he “still needs time” at first.

“I think it’s definitely going to be a little bit of a work in progress,” Ausmus said of Rice’s work at first base. “He hasn’t played a ton of first base. He has played there, [but] he’s a catcher by trade. … Obviously, the bat has been very strong the last few years. We’re just going to have to see.”