TAMPA – During his long minor league season, Ben Rice lost normal weight.
Last season, Rice was able to actually maintain it, earning her first taste of the Big League during a flammable summer call.
“The food is pretty good [in the big leagues]Rice said with a laugh.
He then deliberately spent the offseason on more.
Rice appeared at camp this month after spending around 10 pounds since being called in June last year. Most of them look like upper body muscles as they tried to fill a 6-foot-2 frame in the winter.
He said the early returns were encouraging.
“I think the ball is definitely getting more intense,” Rice was caught by the Red Sox in a rainy game at Jet Blue Park at Stein Brenner Field on Monday morning. “It's going to come off more vigorously because you put more mass on the ball.”
The Yankees hope that when it comes back, it will be one of the things that will allow Rice to have more staying power in the big leagues.
Rice competes for the job as a backup catcher, but the Yankees believe in his bats so much that the better he can play more roles, so they compete for the job as a backup catcher.
And Giancarlo Stanton's elbow problem puts him aside to start the season. It seems like the possibility is increasing as he has not resumed baseball yet.
“I'm excited about Ben,” manager Aaron Boone said Monday at Fort Myers. “I think he'll be a really good hitter in the league. He's made a lot of progress on his body this winter. He's really adding good weight and strength, and that's what's going to show up in his tests. I think he's a man [that can] Become an impact hitter for the league. He continues to impress us with the work he does behind the plate.
“He could consider in many ways. Indeed, in the role of backup catching, he could push it there. If G's go down to start the season, he would DH, one base, could appear in all such mixes. I think he will play the role. I don't know whether or not the season starts, but at some point And, however, I am excited by what I saw with his continued physical development.”
Rice was listed as playing at 215 pounds last season, but is currently listed at 228.
He pointed out his work at the gym and more food.
So far it has served him well, especially as it has returned to the physical crushing that comes with him catching.
He spent nearly two months without catching last summer – he's been going without it since the winter when he was playing hockey in high school – he's made his Yankees debut He was called to debut as an alternative to the injured Anthony Rizzo.
Rice had an immediate impact, batting .294 with .972 OPS and four home runs. Three in one match against the Red Sox on July 6th in their first 17 games before the league adapted to him.
The left-handed batsman hit just .112 with .443 OPS and three home runs in the next 32 games before being sent back to Triple A on September 1st.
He hit nine home runs in the final 19 games there, but only three games that he spent most of his time in one base in case the Yankees need to come back. I caught it.
“This was the catchiest thing I've had in a while, but I love it,” Rice said of his spring training plan and one grapefruitreug match. “I didn't realize how much I missed until I started catching more. So now I'm back to it, and I'm enjoying myself.”
That said, the 26-year-old is willing to play anywhere to get his tickets back to the major leagues.
“It's a place where you can enter the lineup,” Rice said. “If it's catching, I'm everything for it. If it's one base, I'm everything for it.”
– John Hayman, the administration report from Fort Myers
