Andrew Benintendi makes a balletic catch in the 2018 World Series at Fenway Park
The start of Andrew Benintendi’s Red Sox career was tantalizing. He finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2017, after hitting .271 with 20 homers, 20 steals and 90 RBI.
In 2018, Benintendi took off like a rocket and entered the All-Star break hitting .297 with 14 homers, 57 RBI and an excellent .897 OPS. But then things quickly went south for "Benny." He hit .279 with just two homers and a .727 OPS in the second half.
In 2019, his decline was unmistakable. Benintendi slashed a tepid 266/.343/.431/.774, with 13 homers and 68 RBI. His home runs and RBI had declined for two successive years. Meanwhile, his walks dropped to a career-low 59, and his strikeouts soared to a career-high 140. This all occurred when he was just 24, in what should have been the prime of his career.
Though his 2020 campaign was cut short due to a rib injury, Benintendi looked utterly lost at the plate. He hit just .103 in 39 at-bats before it all came to a sudden halt. Little did we know that it would be the last time we'd see him in a Red Sox uniform.
It’s really not a surprise in retrospect. Since the beginning of the 2019 season, Benintendi put up a .255/.341/.410 line, with just 13 homers in 667 plate appearances.
When I saw internet photos of Benintendi’s offseason training regimen over the last couple of years, I became concerned. He looked like he was trying to become a bodybuilder, rather than a baseball player focused on sport-specific training that would improve his on-field skills, such as sprinting, leaping and injury prevention. When I heard the nickname “Benny Biceps,” which resulted from those offseason training sessions, I felt like he was on the wrong track.
Sure enough, Benintendi now admits that he became obsessed with launch angle and generally trying to blast the ball out of the park.
“There was an effort on my end to get the ball in the air more,” Benintendi told the media after the trade. "I was going up there trying to hit for more power. I’m 5-foot-9, 175 pounds, so I know I’m not going to be up there hitting 30 homers a year.”
At least he finally recognizes it. Too bad he didn’t catch on sooner. His career might not have stalled and he’d still be in Boston, rather than Kansas City.
Whatever Benintendi was doing in his workouts, none of it seemed to help. Most shockingly, he went from fleet-footed to lead-footed in just a couple of years. Alex Speier of the Boston Globe wrote the following:
"The big league average sprint speed is about 27.0 feet per second. When Benintendi reached the big leagues in 2016, Statcast measured his average sprint speed at 28.6 feet per second—a mark that ranked as elite, the 89th percentile in the majors. His speed has declined in each subsequent year, down to a below-average mark of 26.6 in 2020 (again, small sample size warnings are necessary).”
Evaluators say that Benintendi’s lack of speed disqualifies him from manning center field, and that his range in left has become quite limited too. So, there is more to Benintendi’s sudden and stark decline than just his offensive struggles.
So much was expected of Benintendi after being selected with the seventh pick in the 2015 draft. That’s the nature of being drafted that highly; you’re expected to perform and to excel. For a while, Benintendi was meeting those expectations. And his defense was sound enough for him to make two superlative catches in the 2018 postseason.
First, there was his diving grab, with the bases loaded, for the final out of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series against the Astros. Then there was his highlight-reel, leaping grab in front of the Green Monster in Game 2 of the World Series against the L.A. Dodgers. It was breathtaking stuff.
Benintendi looked like a star for about a year-and-a-half, until he didn’t for about two years. It’s all hard to figure, and it’s actually sad. He was easy to root for. He's handsome, unassuming and has a folksy charm. His hair was so perfect that it looked like it should have its own agent.
Now all three of the Red Sox brilliant young outfielders from the 2018 Championship team are gone: Benintendi, Mookie Betts and, likely, Jackie Bradley. That was unimaginable just two years ago. Such is the nature of pro sports; it's a “what have you done for me lately?” business.
We’ll all root for Benintendi from afar as he suits up for the Royals. After all, we grew to really like the guy. We’ll hope he gets his career back on track, but maybe not too on track. It would be awful to see him resume an All Star trajectory in another team’s uniform, wouldn’t it?
In the meantime, we can remember the good times with Benny in Boston, and we can remember that the Red Sox ultimately received five players in exchange for him: Franchy Cordero and four prospects. Aside from pitcher Josh Winckowski, we don’t know who the other three will be. Since the 2020 minor league season was cancelled, there was no way for the Red Sox (or anyone else) to evaluate these minor leaguers. Boston likely has an agreement with the Royals and Mets to create a list of players that pique their interest this season, from which they can then choose. So, it’s far too early to gauge the return for Benintendi at this point.
Some may feel that the Red Sox sold low on Benintendi, and that the club would have been better off seeing if he can bounce back this season before dealing him. However, the Red Sox scouts and talent evaluators have been watching Benintendi’s progression and regression for four-plus seasons, so they know the player well. Apparently, they’ve concluded that Benintendi has reached his ceiling, which is lower than any of them ever thought.
As Red Sox fans, we can only hope they’re right. As it is, we'll always wonder what might have been.
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