All of the above. Two homeruns in one postseason game and tying Yankees’ RBI postseason single-game record. Ben Rice was practically the only source of Yankees’ offense during the 2026 ALDS. Aaron Judge’s injury tendencies are not consistent with that of dynastic teams. The Yankees lost this postseason not Ben Rice. No one could blame home for losing this postseason. What do you expect when your players commit four fielding errors in one game and play Trent Grisham over several hall of famer contenders. I bet even the MLB is shaking its head pondering what is wrong with these people who are making the decisions and their manager. It’s unbelievable what happened to the Yankees. Their fans had to literally interfere with a potential catch to just to get the Yankees another run. Ben Rice, a superstar level professional major sports athlete on one of the world’s most marquee teams literally made almost nothing compared to his contribution of carrying the entire offense in the 2026 ALDS series and without his 360 million dollar superstar teammate Aaron Judge. Trent Grisham made way more by doing almost nothing produce for the team this season.
You know what all these things mean? Boone shouldn’t be coaching the Yankees anymore, Judge should be viewed in the same vein as Trout. After this playoff performance by Ben Rice, I have decided to significantly increase my Ben Rice chase card exposure. In fact, I now believe Ben Rice is going to be a tough and resilient play with consistent upside for a long time in the league. Ohtani as great as he is, is going to be setback by the next three years due to cooling off on his record chases, age factor and rise of legitimate MVP contenders like PCA and other strong young players. I never believed Ohtani was going to be the GOAT but now his generational dominance will likely be challenged as well. While three straight MVPs is elite level, four straight MVPs is mystical GOATesque level at the very least. Unfortunately Ohtani only had this one realistic opportunity to be get four straight but just couldn’t pull it off. With such a strong offense and defense backing up him on the mount, he literally just had to pitch and get a few more wins to get the MVP but again just couldn’t do it. Ben Rice is the real deal, the Yankees under Boone and its current front office clearly can’t seem to even get one good deal besides Rice’s contract.
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Ben Rice a superstar on an injury-prone Aaron Judge led New York Yankees team that doesn’t know how to play defense, future of the Yankees and Ohtani’s GOATesque abdication.
Yes, Rice at 27 is old in baseball terms but he also just had an MVP caliber performance at 27 years old while early in his prime. Considering Rice only been in the league full-time ish for like two seasons and actually graduated from an Ivy League school instead of playing professional baseball since 19, I think Ben Rice’s prime will likely be extended to his mid-30s. I think the Yankees need to cut ties with Boone as the manager and trade non-productive players like Grisham, Stanton, Goldschmidt, Judge, Bellinger, Chrisholm and McMahon for productive assets. Aaron Judge can’t win not because of the bat or even the injuries but because of the lack of fundamentals like fielding and pressure management. Surprising many Yankees players have the same issues. Yankees are set with their pitching rotations. They need to rebuild their rotation by developing Dominguez, Jones, Lombard Jr., Volpe and Wells. If I were the Yankees, I would seriously consider trading Judge as his long contract is actually not that expensive to most teams starving for attention and ticket sales. Dodgers are on the decline and the AL powerhouse teams come and go. Yankees can attract the best when they try. They really need to rebuild up their farm system and play the long game.
Most Yankee dynasty were built on their farm systems not paying mercenary players who frequently don’t pan out in the long-term. Yankees don’t win 27 championships without a robust pipeline and the right culture that cultivates winning. When the Yankees veered away from their farm system that’s win much of their championship ways got lost including having the curse of the bambino broken and winning only two championship since 2000 when they won 25 in the last century averaging once every four years. Yankees probably need three durable superstar rotation position players. Ben Rice being one. They can trade the above-mentioned Yankees players including Judge, draft picks and some cash for at least two durable superstars and a strong farm system. Ben Rice should absolutely be the centerpiece of Yankees new beginning. Although Rice only played for the Yankees at the big league level for two full-seasons and three seasons overall, it’s sad to say this, but he pretty much have as much significant playoff experience with the Yankees as Judge or anyone else who is currently on the team.