No one scout is responsible for a draft pick. As with every other element of baseball operations, these are collaborative processes. Responsibility ultimately lies with the scouting director who makes the picks, and who leans on the evaluations of area scouts, cross checkers and other evaluators.

But a strong indicator of the esteem in which Hyde’s colleagues regard him came on Tuesday when the Yankees’ amateur department bubbled over with excitement for Hyde about Rice’s call-up.

Hyde ran point on scouting and signing both Rice and Volpe, in Volpe’s case working closely with the beloved scout Kelly Rodman, who died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 44.

“He brought me into the Yankees organization,” Volpe said. “You feel like you have a bond, and I’ll always be thankful to him for helping that dream come true.”

Volpe was a standout high school player and first-round pick. Rice was a less obvious find, originally an elite hockey player from Massachusetts.

“He was kind of an overlooked baseball prospect,” Hyde said on Tuesday from the field at Yankee Stadium (naturally, he dropped everything and rushed here from Canton, Mass. as soon as he learned of Rice’s imminent debut).

“A lot of people didn't give him a shot. Cornell was interested in him. Dartmouth pulled the trigger, but it wasn't like he was going to [elite baseball programs like] N.C. State, Vanderbilt or something like that. I think with Ben, it probably was just his skill level at that time. He was more of a hockey guy. Guys like that have to prove things.”

During the pandemic, a few developments broke Rice’s way in gaining the Yankees’ attention. Damon Oppenheimer, the team’s amateur scouting director, spent significant time in the Northeast in 2020 watching his son play hockey.

And Rice showed initiative.

“Ben and a bunch of Ivy League guys started these workouts at the baseball complex in Northborough. Mass.,” Hyde said. “They took the initiative to do things on their own, create live at-bats and games. And the amazing thing is, you'd show up for them and those kids would be in uniform, ready to go without anybody helping them.”

Rice’s motivation to participate in these workouts impressed Hyde, and his elite power made an even stronger mark.

“He played in the Futures League during the summer of 2020,’ Hyde said. “The Cape Cod League did not play that summer because of COVID. The Futures League played and that's basically Nashua, Worcester and Brockton. If the game was tied at the end, they would do a home run derby [as a COVID protocol to avoid extra innings]. It was amazing. He would win those home run derbies at the end to win the game for his team.”

As Hyde recalls, Oppenheimer “really wanted” Rice in the 2021 draft, and nabbed him in the 12th round.

Hyde sees in Rice and Volpe a quality that has become increasingly rare in young players: an awareness of the entire game. In an age of isolated skills, when youth pitchers chase spin and velocity and hitters use bat sensors to measure launch, bat speed and other results, a holistic view of the game can be lost.

Not with these two.

“Anthony grew up with his father throwing batting practice and playing situations,” Hyde said. “Ben Rice grew up with his dad, pitching to him and doing situations. This mindset of playing the game -- not just going to the reps, but playing the game. There's something to that -- guys who like to visualize situations in their mind that make things happen.”

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