PHILADELPHIA – Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler walked with wide-eyed wonder through Citizens Bank Park’s Ashburn Alley on Monday afternoon, dressed in their road gray game uniforms. The young Yankees stars were ready to get on the field, having fulfilled their media obligations ahead of Tuesday’s All-Star Game.
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Matt Hyde can’t say that he saw a day like this coming. But in a way, he did.
Rice and Schlittler were both signed out of Red Sox country by Hyde, the Yankees’ lead Northeast-based amateur scout. The promising pair from Fenway Park’s backyard are now first-time All-Stars, representing the Yankees at this week’s event along with Cody Bellinger.
“It’s definitely one of the things you dream of,” Rice said. “Getting that recognition is really cool.”
Rice will start at first base in Tuesday’s All-Star Game, though it took a pair of injuries to crack the lineup – the Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. bowed out due to lingering lower back tightness, then the Athletics’ Nick Kurtz sustained a right thumb capsule strain.
No matter: with 29 homers and a .971 OPS, Rice has earned a place on the field. Hyde recalls the first time he laid eyes on Rice, who grew up playing baseball and hockey in Cohasset, Mass., calling him “an All-American-looking kid with great power.”
“He was playing in the Futures League for the Worcester Bravehearts,” Hyde said on Monday. “He was a huge part of a team that won a lot of games and ended up playing for the championship at the end of the summer up in Nashua, New Hampshire. What really stood out was that championship game.
“He took an epic BP, where he was launching balls into these pine trees at old Holman Stadium, where Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe played at one time. Everybody stopped to watch him hit. He looked like a Yankee.”
Some would view a 12th-round selection as a disappointment. Rice didn’t.
“I was just so excited to get picked,” Rice said. “I think I had a little bit of naivete to me that really benefited me. I went into it with a 'there’s nothing to lose’ mentality. I was just going to try to capitalize on any opportunity I got.”
Schlittler, meanwhile, had a convincing case to start the All-Star Game, carrying a 9-5 record, 2.05 ERA and 137 strikeouts in 118 2/3 innings. As Schlittler said, “They gave me an opportunity and I just kind of ran with it.”
Even before Blue Jays manager John Schneider announced he would hand the start to Toronto’s Dylan Cease, Schlittler said he’d decided to prioritize rest and recovery, not wanting to attempt to throw 100 mph on two days’ rest.
“Just trying to put myself and the team first,” Schlittler said. “We’ve got bigger aspirations for the season.”
That speaks to the blue-collar work ethic Hyde spotted within Schlittler, first at Walpole (Mass.) High School, then at Northeastern University.
Seeing a competitive strike-thrower with “size that led you to believe there was still room for projection,” Hyde lobbied for the Yankees to select Schlittler in the seventh round of the 2022 MLB Draft.
While he believed in the right-hander’s promise, it was no given that he would develop into anything close to a Cy Young Award candidate.
“Cam has always had to earn things,” Hyde said. “There’s always been a high level of accountability in that [Northeastern] program. I think when you hear Cam talk to the media now in the big leagues, a lot of what he says goes back to the lessons he learned at Northeastern.”
Having Rice and Schlittler in uniform for the All-Star Game is a point of pride for the Yankees’ player development pipeline, just as it has been with Aaron Judge, who was selected as an AL starter but did not attend as he recovers from a right rib fracture.
Speaking this past weekend at Tropicana Field, general manager Brian Cashman identified Rice and Schlittler as “reasons to be hopeful” leading into the second half.
“We need to have as many quality players as we possibly can,” Cashman said, “and you’re talking about some real quality guys right now with those guys.”
That is worth remembering when Rice and Schlittler button their pricey suits and brave potential triple-digit temperatures for Tuesday’s Red Carpet festivities.
Whatever happens in Philly, the boys from Massachusetts say they plan to enjoy the event, then return to the real mission at hand – leading the Yankees toward a parade in the city they now call home.
“Once we’re all done here and the dust settles, we’ll get right back to work,” Rice said, “and go try to win a championship.”