Ben Rice did something this October that almost never happens: he finished as MLB’s postseason home run leader without ever getting to the World Series.
The Yankees first baseman launched four homers in five games before Tampa Bay swept New York out of the ALDS. His final game came on October 7, and from there, nobody in the sport caught him.
That alone makes this a quirky October footnote. Put it next to the broader playoff landscape, though, and it gets even stranger. Four homers was enough to lead the entire postseason in 2026, which is the lowest total for a postseason home run leader since 2018.
Here’s how the leaders stack up from year to year:
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
Rice’s path stands out for another reason, too. He didn’t just lead the postseason in homers with a low total - he did it as the only player on the leaderboard who never got past the ALDS. Other names on those lists may have fallen short of the World Series, but they still reached the League Championship Series and, in some cases, shared the title with someone who did make it all the way.
To find the last time the postseason home run crown went to someone who never appeared in the World Series, you have to go back more than two decades.
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.
Those two had more runway than Rice, too. Walker logged 46 plate appearances in 12 postseason games, and Beltrán got 56 plate appearances in 12 games during his October run.
Rice’s sample was tiny by comparison, but it was loud. Across 22 plate appearances in 2026, he hit .421/.500/1.105 with four homers, nine RBI, five runs scored, and a 27.3% strikeout rate. His wRC+ jumped from 96 in 2025 to 329 this season.
That’s a sharp turnaround from his first postseason look. In 2025, Rice hit .222/.286/.444 with one homer, four RBI, two runs scored, and a 38.1% strikeout rate in 21 plate appearances.
The Yankees’ postseason ended quickly after they swept the Boston Red Sox in the American League Wild Card Series, then got swept by the Rays in the next round. It was a rough ending for New York, but Rice’s October was impossible to miss. After a regular season in which he slugged a career-high 41 homers, he got his chance again under the bright lights - and made the most of it.
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