Ben Rice lines up for the 2026 Home Run Derby, with dad on the mound

Ben Rice is going to take his swing a few blocks from the ballpark where he and the sport first started to feel connected. On Monday, MLB announced that Rice will compete in the 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park on July 13, with coverage on Netflix starting at 7 p.m. ET and the Derby scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. For the Yankees, it is another chance to see one of their current power sources tested under the most concentrated spotlight baseball offers.

Rice, a left-handed bat who has become a mainstay in New York’s lineup, has done more than just hit. The Yankees noted that he introduced himself to their oldest rivalry with a historic display against the Red Sox in July 2024, when he hit three home runs. That three-homer game was the first such performance by a Yankees rookie, a kind of early statement that often matters in a sport that measures both timing and opportunity.

This time, the theme is personal. According to MLB, Rice already knows who will pitch to him during Derby practice and competition, because it will be his father, Dan Rice, a former pitcher who played baseball at Brown University in the 1980s. Dan Rice’s role will be more than a feel-good subplot. In the Home Run Derby, the pitcher controls the rhythms, the spacing, and, at times, the shape of the pitches that can be squared up. Having a parent do that work brings both familiarity and pressure, because it turns preparation into something closer to a training session than a random matchup.

The Yankees’ current production profile provides the broader context for why MLB and New York are putting their faith in Rice’s stroke. MLB pointed out that Rice has been the Yankees’ team leader with 25 home runs, and it also cited his power output across his first three major league seasons, totaling 58 home runs over that stretch. In other words, this is not a cameo pick for a one-off season, but a decision built around a profile that has already shown it can travel through different lineups and different pitching plans.

Derby history, too, has a relationship with those numbers. MLB reminded readers that the Yankees have had mixed results in the competition over the years, including recent struggles to progress past the opening stage. Jazz Chisholm Jr. entered last season and was eliminated in the first round, while New York’s last prior entry before that was in 2017, when Aaron Judge won the title in Miami. That 2017 run still functions as a reference point for what the franchise has, when it hits its moment, proved it can do.

New York’s track record in the derby is extensive enough to matter again now, even if the results have not always matched the brand name. MLB listed four Yankees who have won the Home Run Derby: Tino Martinez (1997), Jason Giambi (2002), Robinson Canó (2011), and Judge (2017). Rice’s appearance continues that franchise thread, but it also changes the meaning of it. The question for July 13 will not just be whether he can pull the ball with authority. It will be whether he can do it repeatedly enough to turn one swing into a round that sustains itself.

With Dan Rice throwing to his son, the Derby’s usual mechanics get a human twist. Baseball can be impersonal in its day-to-day grind, yet the Derby is where a hitter’s timing gets narrowed into minutes. For Rice, the challenge is turning a left-handed approach that has produced against MLB pitching into consistent launches in a format designed to reward precision and quick adjustment. If he can make that transition, New York gets to watch one of its current power pillars chase a piece of Derby history. If not, the family session will still be the story, but it will have come with a very short scoreboard. What to watch next is how Rice handles his first live round pacing and pitch selection once the Derby clock starts.

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