I’ve been one of the strongest proponents that Spring Training results are misleading and inconclusive, and yet when the Yankees play, I’m constantly tweeting about how hard Ben Rice hits the ball. It seems like a contradiction; care about stats for some but not for others, but the key here is to focus on the word “results”. Whether their OPS is .800 or .600, my outlook on a player’s season remains rather unchanged, but there are things that can catch my eye this time of year.
One of those things would be a meaningful improvement in terms of raw power, and that’s why Rice has become one of the most talked-about Yankees in camp this year. His increased power output doesn’t guarantee that he’ll have a strong campaign, but it certainly increases the odds of him reaching his potential, and this will serve as a guide for why something as simple yet controversial as exit velocity can tell us who’s primed for a breakout season.
Why the Yankees Should Care About Ben Rice’s Spring Training Data
The best kind of data to pay attention to this time of year is anything that stabilizes quickly, which is why analysts place such a heavy emphasis on Stuff+ improvements despite these games not mattering. A pitcher debuting a new slider that grades out well can be a game-changer, and the shape of that pitch would likely hold itself from Spring. The command or actual effectiveness of that pitch can’t be properly assessed until the regular season, we can still observe these improvements in pitch quality and use them as indicators of a potential breakout season.
It’s a lot easier to pick up those kinds of trends for pitchers, but what about hitters? A lot of what a hitter does requires a large sample size against MLB competition to stabilize, but there is one data point we can get instantaneous feedback on: exit velocity. How hard you hit a ball is mostly reliant on the hitter, and if you’re hitting baseballs harder than you ever have before, that’s a real sign of growth. This isn’t to say a metric like average exit velocity has stabilized already, but when we look at Max Exit Velocity, we can find some real improvements and changes.
Ben Rice’s six-highest recorded exit velocities ever have come during Spring Training, as his previous recorded high in EV was 110.8 MPH. He’s hammering the baseball right now, having as many batted balls hit at or above 111 MPH as he does batted balls hit below 90 MPH up to this point in camp. The improvements are off the charts, enough so that you could reasonably conclude that his Raw Power tool has improved from when he graduated last season.
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While I don’t expect this data to hold up over the course of a full 162-game season (nor am I sure he can hit LHP yet), the Yankees are going to be encouraged by a version of Ben Rice who has cleaned his Max EV by 3 MPH. That can have a massive effect on his power output, hitting the ball hard and in the air typically results in higher SLG% numbers, but the other area where I expect improvement is in terms of batting average.
Ben Rice isn’t a hitter who only looks to drive the ball to right field, Rice has displayed a balanced approach at times and often thrives on the ability to hit the ball hard to the opposite field. Barreling a baseball, regardless of direction, is a good thing that usually results in hits, but to consistently get good results from going the other way or going to straightaway centerfield you have to hit the ball harder than you would if you pulled the ball.
It’s why Cody Bellinger, who doesn’t have monstrous raw power, has to focus on pulling his barrels while Aaron Judge just has to barrel the ball, direction be damned. Ben Rice hit only .286 with a .571 SLG% on balls he barreled to the opposite field or straight away centerfield, whereas the league-average hitter had a .559 average and 1.769 SLG% in those same scenarios in 2025.
With more pop in his swing, Ben Rice might be able to convert some of those warning-track shots into bombs, which could have a seismic impact on his slashline. This is a long-winded way of saying, if you hit the ball harder you tend to have more of your batted balls drop for hits or leave the yard. Want to hit for a higher average? Improving your raw power output might be the solution.
This has some massive Captain Obvious energy to it, but the point is to emphasize that hitting the ball harder isn’t just about selling out for more strikeouts and more home runs. Hitters often speak about not trying to hit home runs when they’re at the plate, even the most data-savvy people will tell you that simplifying your thought process at the plate is the key to having the most success. Being able to hit the ball harder allows you to have a higher chance of getting a hit when you do square one up, and that’s the value of exit velocity.
Is Ben Rice making an active intent to hit the ball hard as well? It’s certainly arguable given the bat speed data we’ve gotten in Spring Training, as he’s increased his bat speed from 71.4 MPH to 74.7 MPH. His fast-swing rate is up from 14.6% to 53.3% as well, and that’s come without a spike in whiffs or chases, which would definitely bring into question the viability of these changes. He’s made contact in-zone at an 85.5% clip while whiffing just 18.7% of the time, but this is a data point I wouldn’t buy into entirely until he plays regular season games.
Spring Training results don’t matter, but what we’ve seen from Ben Rice in the exit velocity department absolutely does, and it’s why the Yankees have all but handed him the starting DH job.