The New York Yankees had an injury scare during their disastrous 10-8 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays yesterday, as Ben Rice was drilled by a slider in his elbow. While he remained in the game for that half inning, he would later head down to the clubhouse and was pinch-hit for Pablo Reyes, as the team announced he was undergoing imaging at a local hospital. He has been their second-best hitter through this point of the season behind Aaron Judge, but they seemed to have avoided anything catastrophic, such as a fracture, as X-Rays and CT Scans revealed no structural damage to the elbow.
He is not in today’s lineup, but manager Aaron Boone is not too worried about this being a long-term issue, mentioning that they’re resting Rice to help the swelling come down a bit before inserting him back into the lineup. Trent Grisham will lead off in his place, as he’s been red-hot as well and hit a solo home run yesterday to continue his strong 2025 campaign.
Ben Rice Expected To Return This Week, Yankees Avoid Disaster
While Yankees fans might believe everything that could go wrong did go wrong in yesterday’s ninth-inning collapse, the one icing on the cake was the news of a negative X-ray for Ben Rice. Losing their new DH for an extended period of time could cripple the offense, which has had some of its early contributors go cold in the past two weeks. While the Yankees are still humming along as a lineup, a huge part of that has to do with what Rice has done for them in April.
Through his first 19 games of the season, Rice has a 188 wRC+ and 0.9 fWAR, clubbing five home runs and being the team’s best on-base threat outside of Aaron Judge. His feel for the strike zone coupled with his raw power has made him a tough at-bat for any pitcher, and the Yankees know how important he is to their 13-8 start. The Yankees are hoping to get Ben Rice back at some point in their upcoming series against the Cleveland Guardians, which starts tomorrow.
With how Trent Grisham has played as of late, it could provide the outfielder an opportunity to earn some more playing time as he’s leading off in front of Aaron Judge.
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He’s clubbed five home runs as well to start his 2025 season, and Aaron Boone is liking the at-bats enough to have him lead off in this rubber matchup. The Yankees could take the series against the Rays and claim their first series victory over an AL East rival, or they could drop this game and split a four-game set that they should have won. Grisham could provide a nice spark to this offense as Max Fried takes the mound in hopes of delivering another strong performance.
The Yankees will hope for a long start from Fried, given how much they’ve relied on their bullpen this series, but the injury to Ben Rice weakens their offense as well. He won’t be available off the bench most likely since the Yankees would like to see the swelling come dow,n and it’s too early in the season to risk worsening that injury for one at-bat.