Is Yankees' Ben Rice proving that he should catch more games than Austin Wells?

New York Times

a day ago

NEW YORK — This season, no one in the majors has been more unlucky at the plate based on quality of contact than Ben Rice — except Juan Soto. That's important to note because, based on Rice's contact quality metrics, he could be a top-10 hitter in the sport.
Here are the only hitters who have a higher xwOBA than Rice this season: Aaron Judge, Soto, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ketel Marte, Corey Seager and Pete Alonso. That is quite the grouping for the second-year hitter to be a part of, and speaks to why the Yankees have been searching for ways to get him more at-bats.
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There are two ways the Yankees can maximize Rice's playing time: start him at first base when there's a right-handed pitcher on the mound, or increase his starts behind the plate to supplant the struggling Austin Wells. As Wells' offensive struggles continue to pile up, the latter option is looking increasingly compelling.
Rice was behind the plate for Monday night's 6-2 win over the Minnesota Twins, guiding Will Warren through the first outing by a Yankees starter to go at least six innings this month. His defense has significantly improved from where he was last season when he was with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
In limited action, Rice has graded positively in both blocking and framing, while his arm has been below average. Wells has been one of the league's best framers, arguably the most important skill for a catcher, this season. However, with more games behind the plate, Rice could be as effective at stealing strikes as Wells. Entering Monday's game, Rice's strike rate was only 0.1 percentage point worse than Wells'.
At the beginning of the season, when Rice was mainly getting at-bats as the Yankees' designated hitter and first baseman, catching coordinator Tanner Swanson said he believed Rice could start for at least a third of MLB teams. Behind the scenes, the Yankees were having Rice catch bullpens and slowly working him into lopsided games behind the plate. He's now showing he could handle a bigger workload.
'He does a really good job of game planning,' Warren said. 'It's been like he's been catching this whole time and never played first base, so it's really nice throwing to him.'
Rice's rise has coincided with Wells' offense cratering this year. Wells' wRC+ has fallen from 106 last season to 84 this year, which is the 29th best among the 36 catchers who've had at least 200 plate appearances as their team's primary catcher. Opposing clubs have a clear game plan against Wells: Throw him any breaking or off-speed pitch, and he likely won't have success.
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Among 165 hitters who have seen at least 200 sliders this season, Wells' .085 batting average is the worst. This isn't a case of him getting unlucky, either. His .194 wOBA is the sixth worst in that group. And among 140 hitters who've seen at least 100 sweepers, Wells' .045 batting average is the worst.
'Over the last month, it's been a grind for him, kind of working on different things, all trying to kind of get that feeling because I do feel like he is such a capable and good hitter,' manager Aaron Boone said. 'We gotta get him to where he is a key figure for us because he really lengthens our lineup when he's right.'
Boone is right that the past month has been a grind for Wells. Since July 11, no hitter in the big leagues with at least 50 plate appearances has been worse than Wells, who has a 1 wRC+ in that span. But it hasn't just been a month of struggles for Wells; this is a season-long issue.
His chase rate has spiked, while his walk rate has dropped. His on-base percentage is the fifth-worst in baseball this season. He has become a liability when he's in the order, and for a team that hasn't had much success offensively since the All-Star break, reducing Wells' at-bats in favor of Rice could give the Yankees a spark. However, Boone wasn't interested in entertaining the possibility of that happening, quickly dismissing a question regarding Rice getting more playing time behind the plate.
'I don't know. We'll see,' Boone said.
Wells has been one of the most disappointing Yankees this season. There was some talk in spring training of Wells becoming the team's leadoff hitter going into the regular season, but now, just a few months later, it's become apparent that reducing his at-bats would help the Yankees. And the way to do it would be giving Rice more games behind the plate, even if the Yankees aren't fully ready to commit to doing that just yet.
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