Why Aaron Boone should NOT be platooning Ben Rice

Ben Rice is one of MLB's best hitters so far, but is not in the Yankees lineup every day.

Photo courtesy of MLB.com

Ben Rice has the best OBP, SLG, WRC+, wOBA and BB% in Major League Baseball. Rice has also not been in the New York Yankees’ starting lineup for three of the last five games.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone is sticking to his platoon strategy and sitting the left-handed hitting Rice to start games when they are facing a lefty, benching him four out of the five times the Yankees have faced a southpaw this season. While Boone has shown that he has no issues aggressively using Rice as a pinch hitter later in games, it is still difficult to justify leaving potential at-bats for Rice on the table for Paul Goldschmidt.

What makes this such a tough call for Boone is Goldschmidt’s success against left-handed pitching. In 162 appearances against lefties last season, Goldschmidt slashed .336/.411/.570.

But on the other hand, the 27-year-old Rice, who is entering his second full season, is no slouch when he has gotten the opportunity to hit against lefties. Here are his splits against right-handed and left-handed pitching:

Last season, in 411 plate appearances against RHP, Rice slashed .269/.356/.504 with 19 home runs. In 119 plate appearances against LHP, his numbers were .208/.271/.481 with seven homers. There is a clear, understandable drop-off, but it is not as disastrous as some other players across baseball who get platooned.

As is the case with most young hitters, the only way for Rice to improve against lefties is for him to get at-bats. Rice and the Yankees know this.

“I think last year, I was overall a productive hitter versus (lefties),” Rice said to The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner on Tuesday. “The only way to continue to get better is to see them. I’m still going to get reps against them. I’m still going to face lefty relievers, at least like I have been, and start against certain guys.”

The issue is, the Yankees do not have a lot of flexibility to have Goldschmidt and Rice in the lineup together.

So far this season, Rice has only appeared as a first baseman or designated hitter. He can also catch, starting 26 games there last season, but he has yet to make any appearances as a catcher so far this season. Goldschmidt has only ever played at first base, and the Yankees primary designated hitter, Giancarlo Stanton, should probably not be getting too many reps in the outfield given his extensive injury history and chronic pain.

But at a certain point, Rice needs to be given more consistent opportunities to prove that he can hit lefties. It is a small sample size, but Rice has shown this season that he is one of the best hitters in baseball. He is in the 100th percentile in hard-hit rate, 99th percentile in average exit velo and 98th percentile in barrel rate. Let’s just say there is a lot of red on his baseball savant page. Hitters like that need to be playing every day.

Ben Rice’s Baseball Savant page

The 38-year-old Goldschmidt’s defense has also regressed to a point where he is no longer an upgrade over Rice at first base. Goldschmidt had a -2 fielding run value last season and Rice’s fielding run value at first base was 1.

The easy answer to this is to work Rice in at catcher against lefties. The Yankees everyday catcher, Austin Wells, who like Rice hits lefty, also has poor platoon splits. Wells’ career OPS against RHP is .741. Against LHP, it is .614.

But Boone has his doubts.

“I’m not ready to catch Benny,” Boone said to NJ.com’s Randy Miller before the Yankees’ 7-1 loss to the Angels on Tuesday. “I would put him in a game, but I’m not ready to go five, seven, whatever innings with him yet.”

“I feel like we’ll get there, but we want to keep the focus on a lot of his first base work, as well,” Boone added.

Having Rice at catcher has its drawbacks. Last season, he had a -2 fielding run value at catcher, was a -1 in framing, was 91st in arm strength with an average of 74.9 mph and was 78th with a -2 in blocking. At least statistically, Rice is a much more valuable defender at first base.

So here are the Yankees’ options appear to be to ensure Rice is in the lineup every day:

1. Stop platooning Rice with Goldschmidt and make Rice the everyday first baseman.

2. Give an aging and chronically injured Stanton some rest against LHP, play Goldschmidt at first and DH Rice.

3. Work Rice in at catcher for Wells against LHP.

The Yankees have a 9-8 record to start the season and have lost six of their last seven games. In what is expected to be a very competitive AL East, they can not afford to keep losing.

There is no reason why Rice should not be in the lineup. While none of the options are perfect, Boone has ways to play him every day. The Yankees’ skipper needs to stop overthinking things and give MLB’s best statistical hitter at this point in the season as many at-bats as possible, regardless of any potential platoon splits.

Rice has earned the benefit of the doubt and should have an opportunity to prove himself against left-handed pitching.