The new-look swing behind Rice's hot start

Aaron Boone is right: Ben Rice rakes.

More importantly: Rice rakes because the changes he made coming into the season are for real.

It was the talk of Yankees Spring Training how Rice had beefed up ... how Rice was stronger ... how Rice was hitting the ball harder than ever.

And now we know it's true -- Rice is stronger. How do we know? It's not just because he hit .375 with two homers and a 1.349 OPS on the Bronx Bombers' first homestand.

It's because Rice is swinging the bat a lot faster.

A week into the new season, the 26-year-old lefty has added over 3 1/2 mph of bat speed from 2024 to 2025, one of the largest gains of any hitter so far.

Rice's average bat speed as a rookie was 71.4 mph. This year, his bat speed is up to 75.0 mph.

Largest bat speed gains from 2024 to 2025
Hitters with 250+ competitive swings in 2024 and 25+ in 2025

• Nolan Schanuel: +3.9 mph (65.2 mph to 69.1 mph)
• Ben Rice: +3.6 mph (71.4 mph to 75.0 mph)
• Brendan Rodgers: +3.5 mph (71.7 mph to 75.2 mph)
• Nolan Jones: +3.0 mph (70.7 mph to 73.7 mph)
• Brett Baty: +2.9 mph (73.5 mph to 76.4 mph)
• Brice Turang: +2.9 mph (66.2 mph to 69.1 mph)
• Cody Bellinger: +2.7 mph (69.0 mph to 71.7 mph)
• Junior Caminero: +2.7 mph (77.2 mph to 79.9 mph)

For Rice, that's a swing from slightly below average for a big league hitter to the top tier of MLB bat speeds. Even though it's still early in the season, that's important. Bat speed becomes meaningful for a hitter very quickly. It only takes a handful of swings to know that Rice's gains are legit.

The Major League average bat speed since bat tracking was introduced at the 2023 All-Star break is 71.5 mph. And Statcast's "fast swing" threshold is 75 mph -- exactly what Rice is now averaging. Only 29 of the 279 hitters on the bat speed leaderboard for 2025 are at or above that 75 mph mark.

Last season, less than 15% of Rice's swings were 75 mph or faster. This season, over 48% of his swings have reached the fast-swing threshold. No hitter with as many swings as Rice this season has had a bigger jump in fast-swing rate.

Rice is letting it rip. But, of course, that doesn't matter if you're not putting the barrel on the baseball. Rice said so himself in Spring Training: "You can still get as strong as you want -- but you’ve still got to square up the ball."

Well, good news for the Yankees there. Armed with his faster swing, Rice is also squaring the ball up more often. And that's produced his hot start to the season.

Statcast actually tracks when a hitter combines a fast swing with squared-up contact on the sweet spot of the bat, a stat called "blasts." Rice has recorded a blast on almost a quarter of his swings so far in 2025, a top-10 blast rate for hitters with as many swings as he has.

If you swing faster, and you can still barrel up the ball, you're going to do more damage. Which Rice is. His average exit velocity entering the Yankees' series opener against the Pirates on Friday is 100.5 mph -- the best in the Majors, just ahead of Aaron Judge. Eight of his 10 batted balls have been hard-hit, and half of them have qualified as barrels -- having both the ideal exit velocity and ideal launch angle needed to turn into extra-base hits and home runs.

And after reaching a max exit velocity of 113.8 mph in Spring Training -- much harder than any ball he'd hit in the Majors in 2024 -- Rice has already recorded a new regular-season high of 111.0 mph (his double off Corbin Burnes on Thursday). His max exit velo last season was 110.8.

Rice is armed with a new open batting stance that's letting him turn on the ball with authority. While his stance was slightly open in 2024, it's over three times more open in 2025.

Rice has been a pull power hitter in the big leagues, and his stance change certainly seems to be helping him drive the ball to right field. Both of his home runs this year -- a 103.7 mph shot off Brewers right-hander Aaron Civale with a 77.0 mph bat speed, and a 107.8 mph shot off D-backs lefty A.J. Puk with a 74.3 mph bat speed -- were rockets down the right-field line at Yankee Stadium.

If he keeps up his new swing -- and his new swing speed -- there will be a lot more.