Aaron Boone Gave Perfect One-Word Answer to Explain Yankees’ Curious Lineup Tweak

The New York Yankees have already explored a handful of different lineups early into the 2025 MLB season, and they’ll once again trot out a new-look batting order for Thursday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Hitting atop the order will be Ben Rice, who will take over at first base while veteran Paul Goldschmidt gets the night off. Rice has primarily served as the Yankees’ designated hitter, but will move to first base and bat leadoff for the first time in his career on Thursday night.

Asked about his decision to bat Rice first, Boone gave the perfect one-word response.

“Rakes,” said the Yankees’ skipper.

Sometimes, it doesn’t take a long-winded answer to explain a decision from a manager.

In five games this year, Rice, 26, is slashing .385/.429/.923 with two home runs, two RBIs and five strikeouts in 13 at-bats. He’s been seeing the ball well early into the campaign, and Boone is seemingly hopeful that Rice can provide an early spark from atop the batting order.

After sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers in their season-opening series, New York has lost each of its last two games against the Diamondbacks, and will look to salvage a win in Thursday’s series finale.

Yankees’ Aaron Boone’s perfect 1-word response to lineup strategy question

The Yankees skipper didn’t need a long speech to explain the trust in his player.

Since spring training, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone had confidence in young catcher turned first baseman Ben Rice’s ability to hit the ball. That confidence was shown when he chose Rice to bat leadoff in Thursday night’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

When asked to explain his decision, Boone offered a simple one-word answer per SNY.tv.

The Yankees added Rice as part of a young group of players that made the roster just before Opening Day. A major reason was his strong performance in spring training in which he hit five home runs.

He is currently batting .385, has five hits, two home runs, and two RBIs.

Rice is coming a season in which he only batted .171, had 26 hits, seven home runs, and 23 RBIs while playing 50 games. Despite some struggles hitting for average, Rice has shown the Yankees that he is a unique versatile talent, going from playing catcher to first base.

There is talk that Rice could become a replacement for Anthony Rizzo at first base if needed.

Ben Rice’s past performances as leadoff for the Yankees

On June 18, 2024, Rice made his major league debut with the Yankees at first base. He came in to fill in for Rizzo who was out with a broken arm.

On July 4, he batted leadoff 15 games into his career to replace shortstop Anthony Volpe who was struggling at the time.

Rice went 1-for-5 in his leadoff debut against the Boston Red Sox.

Two days later, Rice made Yankee history while batting leadoff. In that game, he became the first rookie to hit three home runs in a game. One of them was a leadoff home run to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

The Yankees went onto win 14-4.

Since then, Rice has won the trust of Boone to step up to the plate and contribute.