Ben Rice just did something no postseason home run leader has done in more than two decades: he snagged the crown without playing in the World Series.
The Yankees’ first baseman hit four homers in just five games this October before the Tampa Bay Rays swept New York in the ALDS. His last game was on October 7, and in the weeks that followed, nobody caught him.
Naturally, this got me wondering two things:
- How rare is it for someone to lead MLB with just four postseason homers (especially with the expanded playoff field)?
- How rare is it for someone to lead the postseason in homers without reaching the World Series?
Well, as it turns out, both occurrences are quite rare. And it’s even more eye-opening considering they’ve happened in the same year.
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Ben Rice’s Brief — But Impressive — Postseason
The Yankees fell well short of winning the World Series this year. After sweeping the Boston Red Sox in the American League Wild Card Series, they were swept out of the postseason by the Rays in the following round.
It wasn’t because of Rice’s offense, though.
His first taste of postseason baseball came in 2025 for New York. He hit .222/.286/.444 with one homer, four RBI, two runs scored, and a 38.1% strikeout rate in 21 plate appearances.
Rice clearly used that experience to his advantage in 2026. Across 22 plate appearances, his triple slash jumped to .421/.500/1.105 with four homers, nine RBI, five runs scored, and a 27.3% strikeout rate.
His wRC+ went from slightly below average in 2025 (96) to otherworldly in 2026 (329). The samples are tiny, but they’re nearly the same size (21 vs. 22 plate appearances), so it’s fun to compare them side by side.
Lowest HR Total for a Postseason Leader Since 2018
The first thing that jumped out at me was the sheer number of homers it took to finish at the top of the leaderboard. Four felt especially low since MLB has added to the postseason schedule multiple times over the past 15 years.
Rice’s league-leading number was the lowest it’s been since the 2018 postseason. Here’s a quick look at MLB’s postseason home run leaders each year between then and now:
- 2026: Ben Rice, 4
- 2025: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Shohei Ohtani, 8
- 2024: Giancarlo Stanton, 7
- 2023: Adolis García, 8
- 2022: Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins, and Kyle Schwarber, 6
- 2021: Freddie Freeman, Jose Altuve, Kiké Hernández, and Rafael Devers, 5
- 2020: Randy Arozarena, 10
- 2019: Jose Altuve and Juan Soto, 5
- 2018: Steve Pearce and George Springer, 4
A Postseason HR King Who Missed The World Series
Now, there’s more than a good chance you’re looking at that list of dudes and thinking, “Hey, but Devers, Hernández, and Springer didn’t play in the World Series during those years!”
That’s correct, but they shared the postseason home run title in those years with at least one player who did. And even setting that aside, each of those players was on a team that at least reached the League Championship Series.
The important distinction here for Rice is that he’s the sole owner of MLB’s 2026 postseason home run crown, and he did it without playing past Game 3 of the ALDS.
Looking back on the rest of this century, the MLB postseason has ended with a home run leader who didn’t appear in the World Series just two other times:
- 2003: Todd Walker hit five homers for the Red Sox, who were eliminated in the ALCS.
- 2004: Carlos Beltrán hit eight homers for the Astros, who were eliminated in the NLCS.
It’s also worth noting that these guys had ample opportunity to rack up homers during those years. Both Walker (46 plate appearances) and Beltrán (56 plate appearances) each appeared in 12 postseason games during their respective runs in October.
Rice reached these heights in just five games before getting sent home for the winter.
It was a disappointing finish to the year for the Yankees, but it was a noteworthy one for New York’s young first baseman. After slugging a career-high 41 homers in the regular season, he got another opportunity to shine in October. That’s exactly what he did, and the future looks bright for that area of the diamond in the Bronx.
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