RICE TAKING PRACTICE GROUNDERS AT 3RD IS AN INDICATION THEY DON'T WANT PERAZA

Say what you will about Aaron Boone and his never-ending quest to gaslight Yankees fans, but telling us not to “read into” Ben Rice fielding grounders at third base is a special kind of condescending. According to Boone, it was “just for fun.” You know, like when your boss starts training your co-worker on your tasks “just in case” and tells you not to worry about it. Totally normal. Nothing to see here.

Except, of course, there is plenty to see here—starting with the blatant disregard for Oswald Peraza’s place in the Yankees’ future. Which is to say: apparently, there is none.

The scene unfolded over four hours before the finale of the Subway Series yesterday. The infield at Yankee Stadium was quiet, except for one odd sight: Ben Rice and backup catcher J.C. Escarra taking ground balls at third base from infield coach Travis Chapman. Peraza? Nowhere near the hot corner in their practice circle. Not invited to the party I guess. Probably off somewhere wondering what else he has to do to be taken seriously by an organization that treats him like a broken toy.

Let’s be honest here. The Yankees want Peraza to be good—but only in a very specific, highly unreasonable way. He needs to be perfect. There’s no grace period, no real opportunity to get comfortable, no consistent at-bats. And now, instead of developing him, they're rolling out a first baseman/catcher hybrid for reps at third base and spinning it as a goof. A laugh. A quirky little drill. Just “fun.”

It’s insulting.

Peraza is an elite defender. Everyone knows that. His glove should have earned him a spot. But his bat? That’s what the Yankees cling to when they need an excuse. “He’s not hitting enough,” they say. Of course he’s not. He gets jerked around like a yo-yo, never given real runway to grow. If the Yankees were truly invested in Peraza’s development, they would have done it two years ago when they handed Anthony Volpe the shortstop job. Instead, they turned Peraza into Volpe’s competition, then discarded him when Volpe “won.” Since then, Peraza has been treated like a spare part—always good enough to fill a hole, never good enough to be the plan.

Sound familiar? It should. Just ask Gleyber Torres. He had to be perfect too. And when he wasn’t, he got scapegoated, packed off to Detroit, and surprise—he thrived. Maybe it wasn’t Gleyber all along. Maybe it’s just the Yankees and their deeply flawed idea of development.

And now here we are, watching Ben Rice—who, to be clear, has never played third base in a professional game—get surprise reps at the hot corner. Just “for fun,” they tell us. Just “exploring options.” Look, it’s fine to want flexibility on the depth chart, but let’s not pretend we don’t see what’s happening here. The writing is on the wall for Peraza, and it’s written in all caps: YOU’RE NOT PART OF THIS PLAN.

And that’s absolute garbage.

Peraza deserves better. And frankly, it’s hard to take any of this seriously when Aaron Boone—clearly operating as the front office’s ventriloquist dummy—tells us not to read into moves that are obviously, blatantly telegraphing their intentions.

This team doesn’t do subtle well. And it doesn’t do player development well either. So don’t tell us not to question why a catcher is fielding grounders at third base while your best infield defender is collecting dust. Don’t tell us it’s for fun. It’s not fun. It’s stupid. And we’re not stupid enough to buy it.

Stop pretending. Start doing right by the players you’ve failed. Or just be honest and say you’re done with Peraza. At least then we can all stop pretending too.