exclusive New York Yankees Tino Martinez is pulling for Ben Rice to join an elite Yankees club By Dan Martin Published April 8, 2026, 7:59 p.m. ET Yankees first baseman Ben Rice (22) hits a single against the A's. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post The list of home run-hitting left-handed first basemen in The Bronx is long.
It stretches from Lou Gehrig to Don Mattingly and all the way through Anthony Rizzo.
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Ben Rice is in line to become the next one — and has already impressed another name on the list: Tino Martinez.
“He has a lot more potential than I did,’’ Martinez said by phone of Rice, who has gotten off to another hot start at the plate. “He has such a short, compact swing and is very quiet at the plate. There’s no movement. That’s so hard to do. He’s locked in.”
