{"id":785414,"date":"2026-07-07T19:32:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T19:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/785414\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T19:32:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T19:32:25","slug":"yankees-ben-rice-enters-2026-mlb-home-run-derby-updated-field-for-all-star-showcase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/785414\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees&#8217; Ben Rice Enters 2026 MLB Home Run Derby, Updated Field For All-Star Showcase"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Having kept the New York Yankees&#8217; offense afloat amid Aaron Judge&#8217;s absence, Ben Rice is going to put his prodigious power on display in the 2026 Home Run Derby. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Rice announced his participation on Tuesday with a video on Instagram showing his father pitching to him when he was a kid, along with the caption: &#8220;Dad and I are heading to the HR Derby! Swipe to see our first practice round.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Rice is the <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25448290-rays-junior-caminero-enters-2026-mlb-home-run-derby-field-all-star-showcase-philadelphia\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">second confirmed participant<\/a> in the event, joining Tamp Bay Rays star Junior Caminero. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Rice had a breakout season at the plate in 2025, hitting .255\/.337\/.499 with 26 homers in 138 games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">This season has seen Rice level up once again. The 27-year-old has nearly matched his career-high already with 25 homers 85 games. He has a .267\/.360\/.565 slash line in 364 at-bats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Rice has the\u00a0<a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/mlb\/stats?category=battingratios&amp;sort=hrfb&amp;season=2026&amp;seasonType=reg&amp;sortOrder=desc\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">seventh-best<\/a>\u00a0home run-to-fly ball ratio in MLB at 36.2 percent. The only AL player ahead of him is Caminero (43.3 percent).<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Yankeees have needed Rice&#8217;s production while they have been without Judge since May 31 due to a stress fracture in his rib. Giancarlo Stanton has also missed significant time due to a calf strain suffered on April 24.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Despite missing two of their best power hitters, the Yankees still rank a respectable ninth in MLB in runs scored entering play on Tuesday. They have hit a bit of a wall recently with 13 losses in their last 18 games, but they are still five games ahead of anyone else for the No. 1 wild card spot in the AL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">A 12th-round draft pick by the Yankees in 2021, Rice has been a tremendous developmental success story. Him becoming a big leaguer would have been good enough at that spot, so turning into an All-Star is remarkable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">This will be the second consecutive year the Yankees have a representative in the Home Run Derby. Jazz Chisholm Jr. was in the 2025 event at Truist Park in Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Rice will look to become the first Yankees player to win the Derby since Judge in 2017.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The 2026 Home Run Derby will be held at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on July 13. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having kept the New York Yankees&#8217; offense afloat amid Aaron Judge&#8217;s absence, Ben Rice is going to put&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-785414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}