The New York Yankees got the breakout season they were hoping for from Ben Rice in 2025.
The smooth lefty swinger put up an.836 OPS that included 26 home runs.
And guess what? He was unlucky.
One measure would tell you Rice was the unluckiest hitter in all of MLB in 2025.
Baseball Savant includes a metric that shows what an opponent's Fielding Run Value was against an individual hitter. Essentially, how did they perform relative to average defensive expectation against a given hitter.
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The defense was the best fielder in baseball when Rice was at the plate. Check out this chart:
Batters hurt by the best fielding in 2025, by FRV from Baseball Savant: pic.twitter.com/k1jDlSVUIn
— The WARmonger (@TheWARmonger_) January 9, 2026
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The first thing you might do here is try to identify a trend that says this doesn't matter much.
But this list righty and lefty hitters, pull hitters and not pull hitters, fast guys and slow guys.
If Rice tops the chart again in 2026, then there might be something else at play.
But don't be surprised instead if Rice has an even bigger season with a bit more average luck on the swings he puts the ball in play with.
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