The Yankees’ High-A roster has been thinned out fast, with three of Hudson Valley’s better infield bats disappearing in less than two weeks. Kaeden Kent was dealt to the Giants on Aug.
3, Roderick Arias was bumped to Double-A Somerset the next day and Core Jackson followed on Aug. 11.
That left the Renegades looking stripped down, and with Wilson Rodriguez sidelined for the year because of a thumb injury, only two position players in the club’s top 30 by MLB Pipeline remained.
But the most intriguing bat in that group isn’t on that list at all.
Eric Genther, a converted catcher still early in his transition, has become the player the Yankees are watching most closely. And when Renegades manager Aaron Bossi talks about him, one name keeps coming up: Ben Rice.
That’s not a throwaway comparison. Bossi sees the same kind of bat-to-ball ability, the same power to lift the baseball and the same consistent impact that helped Rice go from an Ivy League long shot to a spot in the middle of the Yankees’ lineup.
“When he’s hitting, it’s consistent bat to ball and his ability to impact it hard consistently,” Bossi said. “I look at Eric, I see a lot of Ben Rice.
He’s a guy who constantly gets his barrel to the ball. He hits for a high slug because he’s able to consistently elevate the ball.”
Genther’s path to this point has been unusual even by player-development standards. He signed with the Yankees out of Rhode Island in July 2025 as an outfielder, after catching only two games in college, both as a freshman in 2022. The organization identified the bat first and then pushed him to learn a new position during offseason camp.
He bought in. This season, he’s caught in about half of his games while staying productive at the plate.
In 104 High-A games, Genther is hitting .267 with 12 home runs, 57 RBIs and an .830 OPS. He has also drawn 57 walks against 82 strikeouts, and he hit .358 in July.
The on-base work has been a steady part of his profile all year.
The defense is still catching up, and nobody in the organization is pretending otherwise. Opponents have taken advantage of his arm, running often as he adjusts to the demands of the position. Even so, Bossi and his staff have seen progress in the areas that matter most for a catcher: footwork, release and receiving.
Bossi has made the organizational intent plain.
“My messaging to Eric is he’s gonna be a big-league catcher,” Bossi said.
Genther sounds fully on board with the move. He called it an easy decision and pointed to the Yankees’ track record developing catchers.
“It felt like a no-brainer for me,” Genther said. “It’s given me a lot of opportunities and this is the place to do it if you’re going to try to learn a new position. The Yankees do a really good job of developing catchers here.”
The Rice comparison gets even more interesting because the two players took opposite routes. Rice came into pro ball as a catcher from Dartmouth in 2021 and gradually moved off the position, eventually sliding toward first base as Austin Wells emerged and his catch-and-throw skills lagged. Genther is doing the reverse, moving from the outfield onto the catching path.
So when Bossi links the two, he’s talking about the bat, not the defensive journey. The common ground is the offensive profile: left-handed, disciplined, able to control the strike zone and lift the ball with real authority.
Genther’s résumé backs that up. He was a four-year starter at Rhode Island, hit .367 as a senior and ranks among the school’s career leaders in home runs, RBIs, doubles and walks. He also does his best damage against right-handed pitching, where most of his power has shown up.
With Hudson Valley’s position-player group so depleted, Genther’s rise stands out even more. Jackson Lovich, promoted from the Florida State League in late July, has also hit well since arriving, but Genther is still the two-way project drawing the most attention.
For now, the Yankees are letting the experiment run. Genther keeps catching, keeps hitting and keeps closing the gap defensively.
The bat is ahead of the glove, just as it was with Rice. And for an organization that signed him as a hitter and asked him to learn the game’s hardest position, that’s enough to make him one of the more interesting names in the system right now.
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