Yanks Mag: Philly Special

After the players had retreated to their respective clubhouses following the 2026 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Cody Bellinger was still on the field at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. A few hours after collecting a first-inning single that plated two runners and gave the American League a 2-0 lead, the Yankees outfielder was selected as the game’s MVP. As the dust settled on the 96th edition of the Midsummer Classic, Bellinger accepted the Ted Williams All-Star Game MVP Award -- a crystal bat, to be specific -- from Phillies Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt as his wife, Chase, their two young children and his father, Clay, who preceded him with the Yankees, proudly watched.

“When I got that hit, I had no idea how the rest of the game was going to go,” Bellinger said. “I didn’t know if that was going to end up being so important. But the pitching was dominant, and they told me to keep my jersey on just in case.”

Bellinger’s single up the middle against Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez came with two outs, and it kept the inning alive for his teammate Ben Rice, who singled to drive in the third run of the inning. The Junior Circuit tacked on one more run late in the game and completed a 4-0 shutout over the National League in front of 43,916 fans.

“Bases loaded, two outs,” Bellinger said of his early-game heroics. “I just tried to keep it simple. I was just trying to hit it up the middle against a really good pitcher. I got a good pitch to hit, and I put a good swing on it.”

Winning the award is no doubt special for any player, but for Bellinger, who was seven years removed from his last All-Star Game, the honor meant even more.

Bellinger reached stardom early in his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, winning the 2017 NL Rookie of the Year Award, followed by the 2019 NL MVP after blasting a career-high 47 home runs. A year later, Bellinger helped pave the way to the Dodgers’ 2020 championship, taking the field in 56 of the team’s 60 regular-season games during the pandemic. At just 24 years old, it appeared that he was on track for a decade of dominance.

Besides dealing with the aftermath of a dislocated right shoulder that required surgery during the offseason after 2020, Bellinger suffered a fractured rib and broken fibula. Although he returned to the field for Los Angeles in 2022, the trauma to his body had taken a toll. The former MVP batted .210, and that Nov. 18, the Dodgers decided to non-tender Bellinger, making him a free agent.

Determined to reinvent himself, Bellinger signed with the Cubs. In his first season in Chicago, he batted .307 with 26 home runs to earn 2023 NL Comeback Player of the Year honors.

“When I got my new opportunity in Chicago, I really learned a lot about why I was struggling and why I had been successful,” Bellinger said. “I was able to learn a lot about how I needed to swing the bat at that stage of my career. I learned a lot about my swing, and I got knowledgeable throughout that process.”

Following a second strong season in the Windy City, Bellinger was traded to the Yankees. In his first season in the Bronx, he batted .272 with 29 home runs and 98 RBIs, leading the Yankees to sign him to a five-year contract after the 2025 season.

Bellinger has offered much-needed lineup punch this season, his second in pinstripes, batting .254 with 11 home runs and 51 RBIs prior to the break. The impactful output earned him his first invitation to the Midsummer Classic since 2019.

“It’s been a long time,” he said. “It’s hard to get here. It’s a competitive league, and I’m so excited to be back on this stage. It feels good.”

Bellinger, who was Blue Jays manager John Schneider’s choice to replace the injured Aaron Judge as the AL’s starting right fielder, has inspired players throughout the league with his perseverance over the last six years. When asked about his one-time teammate with the Dodgers on the eve of the All-Star Game, Freddie Freeman showered Bellinger with praise.

“It’s the ‘never give up’ mentality that is so special,” the 10-time All-Star said. “There are so many people who start to taper off after getting injured, and they don’t try to retrain or reinvent themselves or figure out something new. I was there when Cody was struggling at the end of his time with the Dodgers, and for him to have that resiliency with the Cubs and then to carry that over to the Yankees says a lot. It’s hard to do what he has done. It’s hard to be consistently good in this game for a long time, and it’s even more inspiring when a guy has a few down years and has to rebound. That means that they’ve worked so hard to do that.”

For Bellinger, even before he joined Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Giancarlo Stanton as the only Yankees to win the All-Star Game MVP Award, just taking the field for the AL symbolized a full-circle experience.

“It’s been a wild ride,” he said on his 31st birthday, the day before the All-Star Game. “I came onto the scene and was on top of the world and then got hit in the face with a lot of adversity. I relied on a lot of people to help me get through it mentally and physically, and I came out on the other side. As a person and as a baseball player, I’m better for it.”

***

Bellinger was one of four Yankees who were selected to participate in this year’s Classic. Cam Schlittler and Rice, two budding superstars from Massachusetts who were identified by the same scout, and Judge, one of the greatest players in generations, made up the quartet of AL All-Stars from New York along with Bellinger.

Judge lost playing time as the result of a fractured right rib suffered during the first half, but the popular three-time AL MVP’s performance in 59 games was enough for him to be voted in as a starter via two phases of fan balloting. With 17 home runs before he hit the injured list in 2026, Judge earned his eighth All-Star selection, another fine achievement during one of the most prolific decades a player has ever had.

Even though he wasn’t present for the festivities in Philadelphia, Judge was recognized by two fellow greats. As Mike Trout was fielding questions about his 12th All-Star selection during a media session at Citizens Bank Park, one reporter asked him about the 34-year-old Yankees superstar. The stoic Angels outfielder began to smile as he contemplated where Judge’s body of work over the last 10 years ranks.

“He’s one of the best -- if not the best -- all-around players in this era, not just as a hitter but also as a great fielder,” said Trout, who, like Judge, has won three AL MVP Awards. “He’s gone through a stretch for the last five or six seasons that has been incredible. As a hitter, when you get in a groove like that, it’s pretty amazing to see that consistency, especially considering how hard it is to hit Major League pitchers day in and day out. I know he puts a lot of time and work into the craft of hitting, and he’s been the face of the game for a while.”

A day later, Albert Pujols, who won three NL MVP Awards with St. Louis and hit 703 career home runs between 2001 and 2022, shared his thoughts on just how unique Judge is among his contemporaries.

“Aaron reminds me of the best hitters from when I first came up, guys like Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez,” Pujols said. “At that time, there were a lot of players who were able to hit for power and average and were driving in more than 100 runs every year. Aaron is doing all three of those things now, and there really aren’t any other hitters who can match that. Aaron would be impressive in any era, but his accomplishments in this time frame are even more amazing.”

***

Nine years after Judge and Bellinger made their All-Star debuts en route to capturing the 2017 AL and NL Rookie of the Year Awards, respectively, Schlittler and Rice were selected to their first Midsummer Classic. Like the two veterans, both have ascended to elite status early on in their journeys.

Schlittler, a prime candidate for this year’s AL Cy Young Award, and Rice, whose first half put him squarely in the middle of AL MVP conversations, have authored two of the most compelling performances in the sport this season. And the timing of their arrival as All-Stars is one of many similarities in their stories.

Before they were teammates, Schlittler and Rice honed their crafts while growing up in Massachusetts, just 30 miles from one another. Schlittler was raised in Walpole -- a neighboring town to Foxborough, the New England Patriots’ home -- and Rice is from Cohasset, located about 20 miles south of Fenway Park.

Schlittler and Rice both played collegiate ball in New England -- as well as in the Cape Cod Baseball League -- and although neither emerged as a highly touted prospect, Yankees vice president of domestic amateur scouting Damon Oppenheimer and Northeast area scout Matt Hyde were determined to sign them.

In back-to-back Drafts, they did. Starting with Rice, who was selected in the 12th round in 2021 out of Dartmouth College, and Schlittler, who was taken out of Northeastern University in the seventh round in 2022, the Yankees’ scouting department brought in two players who rose rapidly through the system to become All-Stars.

When discussing Rice and Schlittler from the field at Citizens Bank Park a few hours before the All-Star Game, Hyde pointed out several intangibles that both players share that he believes have fueled their success.

“They were both extremely competitive,” Hyde said. “They both have a strong desire to be the best versions of themselves. They were both battle-tested when it came to having to make sacrifices and adjustments. Nothing was handed to either one of them, and that quality seems to be the underlying theme of players who end up being success stories. They never think that they have arrived, because they have always had to prove it. Both Ben and Cam had that edge to them when they were in college, and they still do.

“They are also both very accountable when they fail, and they are able to self-assess. They don’t need someone telling them every little detail of what they have to do. I always come back to a conversation I had with [legendary football coach] Bill Belichick about this, and he said that the greatest players he ever coached weren’t afraid to hear what they have to do to be better, and that’s the case with these two guys. They’re not afraid to hear what adjustments they have to make, and they’ve both had that quality from a young age.”

***

In the last two and a half seasons, Schlittler has made the climb from High-A, where he pitched for the Hudson Valley Renegades in 2024, to the upper echelon of the Majors. To put his meteoric rise in perspective, his big league debut came just one year and five days before the 2026 All-Star Game.

Schlittler’s emergence over the last two seasons has changed the composition of the Yankees’ starting rotation. After just two full seasons in the Minors, the 6-foot-6-inch right-hander made 14 regular-season starts in the Majors last season, posting a 2.96 ERA before putting the Yankees on his back in an epic postseason start against his hometown team. In the winner-take-all Game 3 of the 2025 AL Wild Card Series, Schlittler gave the Yankees eight scoreless innings while striking out 12 Red Sox hitters in a 4-0 victory. His record-setting performance not only punched the pitcher’s ticket into Yankees lore, but it also set the stage for 2026.

“I think that players’ careers are defined by moments,” Hyde said. “That moment gave Cam the belief that he could get the job done in huge games. The way he reacted to it was a sign of the type of competitor he is. He wanted to dominate the Red Sox, and he did. That led to what he has done this season. He knows that he can do that now.”

The 25-year-old Schlittler entered the 2026 season with a world of expectations, and he has lived up to all of them. In his 20 starts and 118 2/3 innings of work prior to the All-Star break, he earned nine wins and had an AL-best 2.05 ERA. His 137 strikeouts were second in the league, and his 0.94 WHIP paced the Junior Circuit.

“I feel good about the way I’ve been able to build my workload over the last few years, consistently adding between 30 and 40 innings each season,” said Schlittler. “That has helped me throw a lot of innings in the first half this year, and I’m comfortable with where I’m at. That has given me a lot of confidence when I take the mound.”

More important than the gaudy statistics, Schlittler kept the Yankees in the AL East race. On a team that lost Max Fried for much of the first half and didn’t have Gerrit Cole until late May, Schlittler consistently gave the Yankees opportunities to win games. Not only did the team win 14 of his 20 starts, but the big righty also had 12 outings in which he gave up two runs or fewer in six or more innings. In seven of his starts prior to the break, he did not allow a single earned run.

Although he decided not to pitch in the Midsummer Classic (but said he would be available if needed), Schlittler was in Philadelphia to take part in the festivities.

“It’s a long season, and I’ve already pitched a lot of innings in the first half and had a few injuries,” he said. “I just didn’t want to take any chances by going out on two days’ rest and trying to throw 100 miles per hour. I wanted to put the team first, especially because we have bigger aspirations for the second half of the season.”

As much as he would like to take the mound in a Midsummer Classic someday, Schlittler was over the moon about running out to the third-base line during the pregame introductions as well as spending time with All-Stars from around the league.

“Getting introduced in front of my family was the best part of it,” he said. “Besides that, when you get to meet guys that you face on the field, you get a different perspective, and that’s been nice.”

Two National League starting pitchers whom Schlittler has drawn comparisons to offered their own perspectives on the Yanks’ phenom.

“It’s a lot easier to have 10 good starts when you first come up than it is to sustain it,” said Pirates ace Paul Skenes. “You can get called up and kind of ‘ride the lightning’ for 10 starts or so. But once you get past 10, you stop riding the lightning. Having success after that like Cam has is all about character and your mental makeup. He’s a high-character guy. He approaches the game the right way and goes about his business the right way. It’s been fun to watch him, and I think it will continue to be for the rest of the season.”

“The dude is electric,” said Brewers stalwart Jacob Misiorowski, whose 1.62 ERA was the lowest in the sport during the first half of the season. “The fact that he can get away with throwing his fastball about 70 percent of the time is outstanding. The stuff is there, and he really put it together quickly.”

While Schlittler’s rapid ascent has undoubtedly surprised most of the baseball world, Hyde maintains that he saw signs of things to come over the last few years.

“It has obviously happened quickly,” Hyde said. “But when he was starting to get rolling in High-A Hudson Valley, I noticed that he had begun to carry himself with a different confidence. He started to know that he was good. He started to look like a big leaguer, just in terms of the way he carried himself.

“I was at his big league debut at Yankee Stadium, and the thing that stood out the most that day was that he didn’t like the baseballs, and he kept throwing them into the dugout. That was an example of how he was doing things on his terms. It was his game. He was pitching like a veteran. He wanted the right baseball. He didn’t care if he had to throw 100 of them to the side. That was different from just about every other guy making their Major League debut. He had an incredible confidence about him that day, and based on that, everything that has followed is not really that surprising.”

When looking back on the last 16 months of his life, the 25-year-old Schlittler reflected on what has been a true whirlwind, culminating with a trip to the City of Brotherly Love.

“I started the 2025 season in Double-A after I got my first taste of big league Spring Training,” he said. “I was able to rise through that level and into Triple-A, and fortunately, I was able to get called up after only one month in Triple-A. The Yankees gave me an opportunity, and I just ran with it. There were a lot of guys in the clubhouse with experience, and they really helped me get through some things, and the Yankees put me in the best position to succeed last year. I was able to take that into this season.”

***

Although Rice took a little more time than Schlittler to establish himself, his performance over the last two seasons has been on par with his fellow Bay State product. After being drafted, the catcher/first baseman was not initially at the top of any depth chart, partially the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as Rice was limited to just 30 collegiate games at Dartmouth. Most of the 2020 Ivy League slate and the entire 2021 season were canceled, and to make up for lost time on the field, Rice played in a league that he helped organize on Cape Cod during three summers.

Even though Rice didn’t get as much playing time as he would have had it not been for the pandemic, Hyde felt confident that Rice had what it took to make an impact in the Majors.

“With Ben, the whole scouting process was about the eye test,” Hyde said. “He’s just an All-American-looking kid. He just looked like a Yankee. The strength, the square shoulders; even back then, he had the frame to easily add strength and weight. And based on his makeup, we were confident that he would put in the work.”

Hyde’s belief in Rice would be validated. After splitting his first two seasons between Rookie ball and Low-A Tampa, Rice took major strides toward the Bronx in 2023, and he made his big league debut in June 2024.

“Ben’s success is a testament to attitude,” Hyde said. “Early in his career with the Yankees, he was behind a lot of high-profile, highly drafted players. I was worried about him and how he would react to that. But the one thing that always stood out is that he never complained. He took advantage of his opportunities, and he had the attitude of someone who was playing every day and hitting .350.”

In his first big league stint in 2024, Rice hit seven home runs in just 50 games, including three in one game against the Red Sox. Then, in 2025, he emerged as an everyday player, batting .255 with 26 home runs and 65 RBIs in 138 games.

In the first half of this season, Rice was as potent as any hitter in the AL. Through his first 91 games, he was batting .279 with 29 home runs, good for second in the league. He also tallied 68 RBIs, which ranked second in the league at the All-Star break.

“He’s getting better and better every day,” said Phillies interim manager and legendary Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, who served as one of Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ coaches on the NL side. “Last year, it seemed like there were ways to get him out by pitching in certain areas of the strike zone or with left-handed pitchers. He seemed to struggle more in those situations. But this season, he has progressed a lot and become much more of a tough out in addition to the power he’s added.”

Rice believes that his 2026 breakout is the product of the determination he has had since those challenging times as a collegiate player, when he had to help organize a league just to keep playing through the pandemic.

“It was a grind,” he said. “Missing the two college seasons, not really knowing if I was going to be able to play professional baseball but kind of fighting my way through it -- I had a lot of other people who wanted to keep playing, and we worked together hard to get seen and get scouted and get our chance. And then even in the Minors, not getting playing time -- working my way out of that as well. Getting to the big leagues, and then working through stuff up at this level -- which is, in a lot of ways, a lot harder -- that’s what I reflect on. I reflect on all the work it took to get here and the work that we’re continuing to do.”

On the eve of the Midsummer Classic, the 27-year-old Rice was afforded the opportunity to showcase his power in Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby. The anticipation for Rice’s first Derby became a hot topic in the sport a week earlier when he officially announced that he would be competing in the contest.

Getting to choose his father, Dan, who was a pitcher at Brown University, as the person who would be throwing to him added to the significance of what would take place on a humid Monday evening in South Philly.

“He’s always been there for me,” Rice said. “I took batting practice with my dad every offseason. It was never about nitpicking my swing or a lot of instruction, but rather spending time together. He really helped me become a good hitter because he was able to throw different pitches that I would have to face in games.

“He always went the extra mile, like when I was playing summer ball in central Massachusetts or in Cape Cod. He would drive out there from Cohasset, and we would hit on a local field before I would go to the ballpark for batting practice with my team.”

After a ceremony in which Rice and the other Derby contestants made their way to a boxing ring at second base -- a nod to Philadelphia’s “Rocky” ties -- Rice hit seven home runs in the first round, with the longest traveling 443 feet. His total wasn’t enough for him to advance, but after watching St. Louis slugger Jordan Walker defeat Kyle Schwarber in the final round, Rice gushed about the experience.

“It was super cool,” he said. “I loved every minute of it.”

One night later, Rice followed Bellinger to the plate in the first inning and wasted no time in authoring his own All-Star moment. On the second pitch he saw from Sánchez, Rice lined a single up the middle, plating Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and giving the AL a 3-0 lead.

“To get back-to-back singles with Belli, that was really exciting,” Rice said. “It was such a fun experience, and I wouldn’t have wanted it to have played out any other way.”

***

In the end, the 2026 All-Star Game was all about special moments. For the three Yankees in Philadelphia, it was about celebrating the fruits of so much labor. More than that, it was about sharing it all with family.

Hyde was encouraged by Oppenheimer to make the trip to Philly amid a busy signing period, and there was no place he would rather have been than on the field with Rice and Schlittler.

“The best part of that moment was to be able to tell both of those guys how proud I was of them face to face,” Hyde said. “To be able to look them both in the eye and tell them that I was genuinely proud of them, that was really special.

“We have developed a great friendship over time, where both of them are like family to me. Seeing their smiles and sharing a few laughs meant so much. Neither of them have changed at all since they were amateur players, and I think that’s a huge testament to their backgrounds and their families.”

Collecting a hit in his first All-Star Game at-bat was no doubt exhilarating for Rice, but he said later that there was nothing quite like blasting those seven long balls and then wrapping his arms around his father in the Home Run Derby.

“I will remember just having a blast with my dad out there,” Rice said. “I will remember everything about it.”

For Bellinger, making it all the way back to an All-Star Game from a nadir that he described as being “the worst player in the game” was certainly an unforgettable moment, as was when he delivered an important two-run single for the AL.

But nothing compared to the moments after the game -- moments he said will stay with him forever.

“My favorite memory was just sharing the MVP ceremony with my family,” he said. “The last time I was in an All-Star Game, it was just me, so being able to share it with them is a blessing.”

Alfred Santasiere III is the editor-in-chief of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the August 2026 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.