Why Would Another Team Want Andrew Benintendi And Who Would That Team Be?
Oh Good Gosh Another Andrew Benintendi Post?
We’re getting good at asking questions in titles here at Sox Outsider. We’re also getting good, or at least getting experienced, at writing Andrew Benintendi pieces. Make of that what you will.
Andrew Benintendi seems to be on the hot seat. Or on the kind of seat that people sit on when they’re the subject of baseball rumors. Maybe a bat seat. Like this:
In any case, there has been more Benintendi discussion which is what I’m here to update you about. You have a normal life, a family, maybe a pet, an apartment or house. You spend your time working, exercising, playing, sleeping, playing video games, whatever. Me? I’m on the Benintendi Beat. I pull my ‘35 Plymouth up to the back of my apartment building. It’s dark but I pull my fedora low to my brow. I lit a cigarette. You see, someone around these parts said something about Andrew Benintendi, and I aim to find out who said what, and what they said. My name is Matt. I’m a private eye. Also, that’s more than enough of this joke.
The Benintendi News Of The Day comes courtesy of Ol’ Jim Bowden of The Athletic, who was good enough to tell us that the Miami Marlins were one of the teams discussing possibly trading for Andrew Benintendi with the Red Sox. Side note: it’s good it was with the Red Sox because had it been with the Brewers, they would’ve been obligated to tell the Marlins, ‘sorry, but we’re actually not allowed to trade other team’s players.’ Back to Main Note: The Marlins are an odd fit. I saw some people on twitter talking about how Miami makes sense, but the Marlins aren’t really a team looking to contend next season, despite the fact that they made the playoffs in 2020. They’re building towards something, sure, but it’s probably not here yet. Benintendi will be a free agent following the 2022 season, so it doesn’t make a ton of sense for Miami to give up good prospects for a player who won’t be around when the rest of the team gets good.
But the point is the Red Sox were talking to the Marlins. Bowden then pointed out that there were other potential trade partners as well. You know what? Here’s his tweet just so we’re all on the same page:
If you think about it for a second this isn’t really new information. We knew the Red Sox were discussing Benintendi, and we knew they were discussing Benintendi with other teams because it just doesn’t make sense to listen to trade offers from your grandparents or that dude with the blue streaks in his hair at the coffee shop. I guess now we know the Marlins were interested at one point, so that’s something, though they’re not actively pursuing anymore. Apparently. Who knows. These things are kind of opaque.
But none of this is really the point. Andrew Benintendi is, at least according to these rumors, somewhat of a valuable trade chip. I have my doubts about the veracity of that, but let’s go with it for a moment. What would other teams like about him?
He’s Cheap
I don’t mean he tips five percent at TGI Fridays, I mean he’s not making a whole lot of money relative to what he could be (more on that in a second) and likely won’t next year either. He’s a starting outfielder on, effectively, a two year, $14 million deal, where the second season is a team option with no buy-out. Which isn’t bad if you are a baseball team.
Except, what if he is bad? He was bad last year and he wasn’t so great the year before.
He Might Not Be Bad
Benintendi has had two rough years in a row. Mediocrity followed by a small sample dose of awfulness followed by season-ending injury. It’s not a recipe for greatness. There are excuses though, and they’re not necessarily bad excuses either. I wrote about this yesterday so forgive me for quoting myself, but it’s late and I’m tired.
2020 was a crazy season in which Benintendi barely participated. His 2019 season wasn’t what we were hoping for, but it was basically league average, which isn’t bad for a down season. Also, and maybe most importantly, he’s a former top prospect who has had recent success at the major league level and will be just 26 years old this season.
So if you’re going back in time and you excuse 2020 as a bizarre aberration and 2019 as a normal step down that a 24-year-old might experience, you get to 2018 when Benintendi was very good year as a 23-year-old. The year before that he finished second for the AL Rookie of the Year award. And the year before that he was the top prospect in baseball by Baseball America. So if you can look past 2020 (not hard) and 2019 (more difficult), you can start to see what is so attractive about Benintendi.
Who Cares?
The Marlins cared at one point. But they aren’t a great match for reasons discussed above. So what other team is a match here? Grant Brisbee of The Athletic proposes the San Francisco Giants as a trade partner. The Giants have a need in the outfield. They don’t have a ton of great prospects to give up, but then I’m still not sure the Red Sox would receive great prospects in return for Benintendi anyway. So that’s one option. Here are a few others:
Cleveland Indians
Cleveland has no outfielders. It’s almost as if they don’t believe in outfielders, like those people who don’t believe in ghosts until a floating scary thing shows up and taps them on the shoulder. The Indians will, it says here, need outfielders at some point. They seem to be in complete tear-down mode following the trade of Francisco Lindor a few days ago, but their roster is still good enough to compete in the Central Division and, as I said, they REALLY need outfielders. I have my doubts they’d want to take on salary, even one as small (relatively) as Benintendi’s but if they did, he’d be a great fit.
Houston Astros
If the season began today, Houston would start Chas McCormick in left field. The Astros presumably want to win baseball games, so they probably need to do something about that Chas McCormick thing. Benintendi would count as “doing something”, though it’s not clear if how intent on actually doing anything Houston is this off-season. But the need is there, and Houston has prospects good enough to make them players in a potential deal. Of course, all of this hinges on the Astros front office being A) interested in Benintendi, and B) awake.
Los Angeles Angels
The Angels are going to win at some point, right? Is Mike Trout, the greatest baseball player since at least the 1950s, going to go through his entire career without winning a single playoff game? The Angels starting left fielder right now is 27-year-old Jared Walsh and he is probably not very good. The Angels do have two highly thought of outfield prospects who should be ready to play in the majors soon in Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh, so that complicates things somewhat if the Angels are planning on playing one or both of those players. Adell though has had some problems making the transition, enough that some scouts have soured on him, so perhaps adding Benintendi fixes that problem and gives Adell some more time to figure things out while trying to prevent the Angels from squandering the massive advantage that is employing one of the greatest baseball players ever.
Arizona Diamondbacks
Are the Diamondbacks trying to win in 2021? Maybe! They have an opening in the outfield that Benintendi could help fill, and their GM, Mike Hazen, knows the Red Sox system pretty well having worked in Boston for years. So maybe there’s a match there. Or maybe the Diamondbacks are, like seemingly most teams in baseball, on a four month long lunch break.
Those are some options, but often these things end up going in ways you didn’t see. Either way though, it appears the Red Sox are open for business on Andrew Benintendi. Watch this space for more Benintendi content as events warrant.
Solid content. It would be nice to read about some names that the Sox could expect in return for Benintendi, but obviously that’s just speculation until a deal is done. Having an idea of which organizations to evaluate as potential partners is the next best option.