How long will Aaron Judge and Ben Rice race for the home run lead?

BRONX, NY - MAY 03: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees and Ben Rice #22 in the dugout during the game against the Baltimore Orioles on May 3, 2026 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images New York is off to a fantastic start this year, owners of a 24-11 record after sweeping the Orioles in a four-game set that wound up giving us four straight blowouts, even if one of those games was a bit of a nail-biter until the last inning. They’ve found their offensive groove to match their dominant starting pitching, giving them a fantastic chance of winning on any given day, but it’s been the efforts of two men in particular that have given the offense its jump start.

Aaron Judge is no stranger to putting the lineup on his back at times, having played at an MVP level for four consecutive seasons and earning the literal award three out of those four years. The captain has been the driving force of the Yankee offense — when he’s on, good things can happen at any time with one swing, and the hitters around him all benefit from pitchers being scared to face him. There have been plenty of names written in ahead of and behind him in the batting order for just this reason, but none have been clicking as well as Ben Rice has been to start this 2026 season.

Rice owns MLB’s best OPS at a 1. 214 mark thus far, and he’s slugged out 12 home runs to Judge’s 14, with several of the latter’s coming just after Rice launched one to close the gap on him. Judge sits tied with White Sox standout Munetaka Murakami for the Major League lead in home runs, and Rice is in a three-way tie for second right behind them.

For all the years that the Yankees have had the prodigious slugging power of Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in their lineup, the two have never both threatened to top the leaderboard since joining forces, and while Juan Soto put up a then-career best 41 homers in his one-year stint in pinstripes that came nowhere close to matching Judge’s 58 bombs in 2024. Rice presents the first chance in the Judge era of pairing him with a hitter capable of going tit-for-tat with him in the power category, should the third-year first baseman continue to hold this elite form he’s showcased. Rice is currently dealing with a minor setback, having suffered a hand contusion in Sunday’s game while fielding a pickoff attempt from Max Fried, but the injury doesn’t appear to be serious and he should be back in the lineup over the course of the next day or two.