Jack Curry gets blunt about potential Yankees change after Luis Garcia Jr. trade

The New York Yankees have been hit hard by the injury bug in 2026, and they have had to make moves to help fill in the gaps that have been opened up by the absences of a few of their best position players. On Sunday, they traded away some significant prospect capital to the Washington Nationals to bring Luis Garcia Jr. in, addressing their need for a power bat, which became even more pressing after Cody Bellinger headed to the injured list with a hamstring strain.

However, Garcia is not going to be the easiest player to fit into this Yankees lineup. They already have Ben Rice at first base, with Rice being in the middle of a career year, while Paul Goldschmidt will be commanding some playing time as well. One potential solution could be to move Rice to catcher, where he played 36 games for New York last season.

But that doesn’t seem to be in the cards, with Jack Curry of YES Network shutting down the potential of Rice moving over to catcher to accommodate for Garcia’s arrival.

“That’s not gonna happen. The Yankees have made that clear since Spring Training. Ben Rice is not suddenly, in August, going to become a catcher. They’re happy with what their catchers have done defensively,” Curry said.

.@JackCurryYES on if the Yankees will put García Jr. at 1B and move Ben Rice to catcher: "That is not going to happen." pic.twitter.com/evdBPxnLbs

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) August 2, 2026

The Yankees’ desire to acquire an upgrade at catcher is no secret, as Austin Wells and Ali Sanchez have contributed nothing on offense for the team. They have been linked to the likes of Hunter Goodman, Ryan Jeffers, Tyler Stephenson, and even Francisco Alvarez from the New York Mets in their vast search for a new man to hold the fort at the backstop.

In all likelihood, Goldschmidt will be the one to make way for Garcia’s arrival. Garcia and Rice will hold down the lion’s share of playing time at first base and designated hitter, while Goldschmidt will hit on the other side of the platoon to cover for Garcia’s weakness against left-handed pitching.

It becomes more complicated once Giancarlo Stanton returns, but there are no signs of that happening anytime soon anyway.

The post Jack Curry gets blunt about potential Yankees change after Luis Garcia Jr. trade appeared first on ClutchPoints.