The hitter with the highest OPS in baseball through the first three weeks of the season started Tuesday on the Yankees’ bench for the third time in the last five games.
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And yet, Aaron Boone insists there is a method to what much of the fanbase sees as madness in starting Paul Goldschmidt over the red-hot Ben Rice, even after the Yankees said this offseason the young first baseman would get his fair share of at-bats against lefties this year.
Boone came into this series against the Angels planning on starting Rice on Tuesday against lefty Reid Detmers, who has more neutral splits than lefty Yusei Kikuchi, who started Monday’s game.
But in the Yankees’ last two games against lefties, Rice proved to be a valuable bat to fire off the bench in important spots, which Boone decided he liked enough to have him in that role again Tuesday.
“I’ve just been able to so aggressively use Benny [off the bench],” Boone said before Tuesday’s game. “Even though he’s not in the starting lineup, I view him playing a major [role]. In the last two games he’s sat against a lefty, he’s got [four] at-bats – homer, walk, single. I’ve been able to kind of fire him at the most important part, and it might be early in the game.
The Yankees only faced one lefty starter in their first 11 games before seeing four in the six games since. Rice has only started against one lefty (1-for-3 against the Athletics’ Jeffrey Springs) while taking nine more plate appearances against lefty relievers, going 3-for-11 (.273) with a .606 OPS against lefties overall.
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One way to get both Rice and Goldschmidt in the lineup against lefties would be to have Rice catch, but Boone said he is not yet ready to have him play a full game there because he did not start any games behind the plate this spring – the Yankees wanted him to get as many reps as possible at first base – and needs to build up that workload still.
“Because Goldy brings such a powerful presence at the top of the order against lefties, I just want to keep that going as well,” Boone said. “But having the ability to cherrypick when I fire Benny Rice in a big spot, I like that.”
