NEW YORK – When Ben Rice jogs to first base at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, tossing warmup grounders to Anthony Volpe at shortstop, the scout credited with starting each gamers on their respective skilled journeys can have a palpable sense of delight.
Upon studying of his huge league callup late on Monday, considered one of Rice’s first calls was to Matt Hyde, the Yankees’ space scout who tracked him whereas at Dartmouth. Scouting a Cape Cod League recreation in Chatham, Mass., as he answered the decision, Hyde would quickly be within the automotive on his method to the Bronx. He couldn’t miss an opportunity to see Rice and Volpe collectively in The Present.
“They each have a fantastic want to enhance; they each don’t suppose that they’ve arrived,” Hyde mentioned. “They each suppose that they’ll get higher, and so they’re additionally each excellent at self-assessing themselves, which I believe are nice qualities. They’re each nice rivals, they wish to win and that’s what actually makes each of these guys Yankees in my e book.”
Very similar to Volpe wowed staff personnel at each cease within the system, the Yankees believed they’ve one thing particular in Rice, the membership’s No. 12 prospect, based on MLB Pipeline. That was true lengthy earlier than Rice developed into the power-hitting prospect who can have an opportunity to interchange the injured Anthony Rizzo at first base.
Chosen within the twelfth spherical of the 2021 MLB Draft, Rice first impressed the group by what he did when he couldn’t play. Restricted to simply 30 collegiate video games in three years, Rice tailored when the COVID-19 pandemic truncated the 2020 season and canceled the ’21 Ivy League marketing campaign.
“It was this All-American-looking child who had huge left-handed, uncooked energy and was at a premium place as a catcher, with make-up,” Hyde mentioned. “He didn’t have two faculty seasons, and he helped arrange a league that performed on the New England Baseball Advanced in Northborough, Mass., doing exercises on their very own the place they did simulated at-bats.
“There was numerous initiative that went into that, and Ben was main it. He actually was capable of present us loads when so many issues had been shut down.”
Hyde added that Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankees’ vp of home novice scouting, additionally performed a key position in recruiting Rice — possible seeing Rice in particular person greater than another scouting director.
“The wonderful thing about our scouting division is, we now have numerous nice guys who give us an opportunity to get thorough evaluations on gamers. It’s not only one particular person,” Hyde mentioned. “Damon spent a ton of time round Volpe and Ben Rice. I noticed them loads, however he did, too. There’s nice delight in our complete scouting division when one thing like this occurs, that we’re capable of contribute when a veteran participant goes down. We might help plug a gap and convey somebody up who’s high quality.”
Hyde mentioned that although the Yankees scouted Rice as a catcher, it was straightforward to see a doable transition to first base down the road, noting his dimension (6-foot-1, 215 kilos) and good arms. Hyde mentioned that Rice has grown markedly stronger and improved defensively at each positions throughout his time within the professional ball, efforts that performed an enormous half in his promotion to the massive leagues.
“He’s not solely a frontrunner, however he completely loves the sport,” Hyde mentioned. “He likes to be on the area, likes to put within the work. These are the intangibles that we’re searching for. Generally they’re very onerous to uncover and discover, however [with Rice], we had been capable of see that out of him.”