{"id":457420,"date":"2026-02-09T02:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T02:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457420\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T02:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T02:00:11","slug":"paul-goldschmidts-yankees-return-complicates-ben-rices-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457420\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Goldschmidt’s Yankees return ‘complicates’ Ben Rice’s role"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA \u2014 Ben Rice may not want to lose his catcher\u2019s gear just yet.<\/p>\n

While the emerging slugger is still slated to be the regular Yankees first baseman this season, the re-signing of Paul Goldschmidt<\/a> as a veteran backup could also lead to a few more starts behind the plate for Rice, according to manager Aaron Boone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t anticipate it affecting Rice because we think Rice is a star and we think he\u2019s going to mash in the middle of the lineup for a long time,\u201d Boone said Sunday on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we signed Goldy back, I was thinking Rice is truly our third catcher [behind Austin Wells and J.C. Escarra]. Protect you late in the game if you make an aggressive move with the bench or whatever, you got that coverage. Now, it probably pushes him a little more into \u2014 I don\u2019t expect a lot \u2014 but somewhat more of a catching role. There\u2019s tough lefty days, we\u2019re going to want Goldy in there, we could put Ben behind the plate because we feel he\u2019s going to hold his own too against lefties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it complicates it there a little bit, but to finish off our roster with a really good player [in Goldschmidt], we felt like we had to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewPaul Goldschmidt playing first base against the Athletics. JASON SZENES\/NY POST<\/p>\n

Boone acknowledged that Goldschmidt \u201cwasn\u2019t necessarily the perfect fit\u201d \u2014 a right-handed hitting outfielder would have been more useful given the composition of their projected roster \u2014 but the Yankees opted to go for what they felt was the best player available in free agency to help balance out their left-handed lean.<\/p>\n

Goldschmidt crushed left-handed pitching last season, posting a .981 OPS, though the Yankees have said they want to let the lefty-hitting Rice \u2014 who started 46 games at first base, 26 at catcher and 48 at DH in 2025 \u2014 face his fair share of lefties this year as well.<\/p>\n

While the signing of Goldschmidt to a one-year, $4 million deal, as The Post\u2019s Jon Heyman reported, should not affect Rice\u2019s overall playing time, it could have some ripple effects down the rest of the roster, particularly with how the Yankees make up their bench.<\/p>\n

If everyone stays healthy through spring training, the Yankees bench will likely include Goldschmidt, Amed Rosario and two of Escarra, Oswaldo Cabrera and Jasson Dom\u00ednguez.<\/p>\n

\"NewYankees catcher Ben Rice #22 reacts against the Red Sox. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Escarra still projects as the true backup catcher, though depending on how often the Yankees would play Rice there, that could change.<\/p>\n

Cabrera and Dom\u00ednguez are both switch-hitters who are better from the left side, though the Yankees may need Cabrera more as a backup shortstop to Jos\u00e9 Caballero (since they did not seem comfortable playing Rosario there last season).<\/p>\n

Boone, meanwhile, indicated that a strict bench role was unlikely for Dom\u00ednguez (and top outfield prospect Spencer Jones)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably not in either situation a case where we\u2019d want them as bench pieces \u2014 that doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s not a scenario where they\u2019re part of a true rotation where there\u2019s real regular playing time,\u201d Boone said. \u201cBut there\u2019s a lot to still happen between now and when we break camp in late March.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA \u2014 Ben Rice may not want to lose his catcher\u2019s gear just yet. While the emerging slugger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[1992,27449,363,369,32033,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-457420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-aaron-boone","9":"tag-ben-rice","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york-yankees","12":"tag-paul-goldschmidt","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}