Lauren Shehadi breaks down why Yankees' Ben Rice can win 2026 Home Run Derby

Yankees fans, we understand if you're trepidatious. You haven't supported a Home Run Derby champion since 2017, when Aaron Judge knifed through the sky in Miami and suffered a shoulder injury that slowed him to a crawl that August. Last year, you hoped Jazz Chisholm Jr. could absorb the noise and let it fuel him ... instead, he further embarrassed the fan base and became the event's central joke.

But this year, there's reason to believe that slugger Ben Rice actually has what it takes to emerge from the field. Just ask Lauren Shehadi, MLB Network host and member of the Netflix broadcast team for the event; Rice checks two specific boxes she looks for in a Derby champion.

First off, his dad is throwing to him. That's often a key to success — familial familiarity fueled Bryce Harper quite famously back in 2018.

Secondly, he's got ice in his veins, honed over two seasons in the pressure cooker of the Bronx.

"I remember talking to Aaron Boone at Yankees spring training," Shehadi told FanSided's Baseball Insiders podcast, "and I said, 'Ben Rice' and he got this grin on his face and said, 'Guy can mash'. And I thought, 'That's so cool', because it's not the fanfare, it's not the pomp and circumstance surrounding him. He just can hit. He's hit at every level. And I don't think it'll be too big for him."

"When you play in the Bronx, it takes a certain ... 'I don't listen to the outside' ... and he's got that," Shehadi concluded.

Ben Rice finishing first half on home run heater after Yankees slump in June without Aaron Judge

In case Rice's June swoon had you worried that the noise was finally getting to him, as well as the lack of protection from Aaron Judge, he clubbed four home runs in a four-game Rays series at The Trop, becoming the first Yankee to ever do it to Tampa Bay like that in a single series. He followed that up with a dominant series against the Nationals, fueled by the game-winning two-run triple in the eighth inning on Sunday. The ".196 with six homers" June is over. Rice's July has looked a lot more like the dude who just mashes, and he might be rounding into form and healing up just in time to put on a Derby show.

And yes, his dad, a former Brown University pitcher, will be front and center alongside him. That's got to count for something. If both are impervious to pressure, it might just be enough. Rice's steadiness could thrive where Chisholm's flash failed.

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