Ben Rice knew he got this one.
That picture at the top of this article? That’s Rice watching his home run fly out of the ballpark on Wednesday night as the New York Yankees took on the Tampa Bay Rays.
What Rice probably didn’t know is that this particular home run put him in an exclusive club in the history of the Yankees.
A lot of hitters have hit a lot of home runs in pinstripes. Only Aaron Judge has only done before what Rice accomplished with this swing.
Ben Rice Rare History
Rice’s homer on Wednesday was his 40th of the year, which is a milestone on its own.
But it was also special — because the Yankees drafted Rice.
Only one player in the history of the franchise that the Yanks actually drafted has then hit 40 home runs in a season: That would be Judge, who has done it four times.
Rice joins that list, shared by MLB Network’s Sarah Langs:
Yankees Draft picks to hit 40+ home runs in a season:
2026 Ben Rice
Aaron Judge 4x— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 23, 2026
There are two elements to this.
The first is that the draft didn’t exist for the early eras of the Yankees, when the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were doing their thing.
But the second is that for so long, the best Yankees sluggers have come aboard from other teams.
Take this list, with a bunch of 40-homer hitters but most having begun their careers elsewhere:
Ben Rice is only the 6th Yankees hitter since 2000 with a 40 home run season!
An incredible season for the lefty slugger 🍚 pic.twitter.com/YaZnfuOQpH
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) September 23, 2026
Rice, though, has risen through the Yankees’ system and exceeded all expectations.
Ben Rice Draft Status
Rice went to Dartmouth, not known as a baseball powerhouse, and he was a 12th-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, having missed out on a lot of college baseball because of the COVID-19 pandemic and ending up with just one homer in his college career.
“Even when he started producing in the minor leagues, with a 20-homer season across three levels in 2023, he was old for the levels he played at and didn’t have a position — he was a catcher with no shot to stay there,” prospect analyst Keith Law wrote earlier in September. “His swing was extremely uphill, prioritizing power over everything else, and in his first stint in the majors in 2024, pitchers exploited that swing path, leading to his first struggles in pro ball.”
Rice simply kept getting better, though.
“Rice went out that offseason and worked on his swing and his body, gaining enough strength to improve his bat speed and, naturally, his contact quality,” Law writes. “It wasn’t his first rodeo — he’d changed his stance and swing while in college — but this change was more dramatic, with a much more open setup and a stride that didn’t close himself off, helping him roll over to the right side less often and, at least in 2025, pull the ball in the air more. The change also made him less vulnerable on stuff middle-in; in 2024, he whiffed on 25 percent of pitches on the inner third, then cut that to 11.3 percent in 2025 and 11.9 percent so far this year. He’s still not a catcher, but he’s a top-10 bat in the majors this year.”
Now, Rice has 40 home runs, an incredible accomplishment.
Yankees’ Ben Rice Just 2nd Player in Franchise History With Home Run Feat