Red Sox: What is top prospect Andrew Benintendi's potential?
Red Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi has a lot of hype heading into the 2017 season. Is his ceiling projected to be a future All-Star or MVP candidate?
Expectations are always high when a player is drafted in the first round, then becomes the MLB’s number one prospect. This is the case with Andrew Benintendi. After being drafted 7th overall in 2015, he was just named the top prospect not just in the Red Sox farm system, but all of baseball.
As Red Sox fans, we always have lofty expectations of our players. Benintendi is no different. He burst onto the scene as a sophomore in college with a slash line of .376/.488/.717, to go along with 20 HR and 57 RBI. He also won several awards including the Golden Spikes Award, given to best collegiate player of the year.
Benintendi was able to fly through the Red Sox minor leagues. During 2015 and 2016 he played 151 minor league games, before being called up to join the Red Sox in early August of ’16.
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The question surrounding Benintendi is: what type of player is he going to be? Xander Bogaerts was a top prospect in the organization and has turned himself into a potential perennial All-Star. On the other hand, Mookie Betts turned himself into a potential perennial MVP candidate. Should we expect Benintendi to be more like Bogaerts or like Betts?
In my opinion, I think we should expect Benintendi to be more like Bogaerts. I think his power will hold him back as an MVP candidate. He hit 2 home runs in his 34 games last year at the Major League level. This projects out to only 10 home runs across a full season. He should hit more home runs than this though, especially after seeing him bulk up this offseason. He was never able to go through any hot streaks last year since he only played 34 games and was injured in the middle of that stretch.
While he isn’t know for his power, Benintendi has torn it up at the plate throughout his tenure as a professional baseball player. His career minor league average was .312. The lowest average he had was .290 and that was at Lowell, the lowest team in the farm system. Then he hit .295 at the major league level. It’s pretty much a guarantee that he’s going to hit consistently.
The main reason why I think he’s most likely going to be an All-Star instead of an MVP is because I don’t think Benintendi will ever be the best outfielder in the American League, let alone the best player. He may not even be the best outfielder on the team.
That’s not even a knock against him. It’s going to be hard for Benintendi to outperform Betts. Let’s not forget about Mike Trout, the reigning MVP who has been the best outfielder every year he’s played. Benintendi has his hands full just to be considered the outfielder in the league.
Also, the American League MVP race will be highly contested for years to come with all of the established young talent. In addition to Trout (25 years old) and Betts (24), Manny Machado (24), Jose Altuve (26), Carlos Correa (22), and Francisco Lindor (23) are all expected to be in the MVP race year in, year out.
All this being said, I still think Benintendi will be a very good player. Will he be as good as those other guys? I don’t think he’ll be quite that good, but they set the bar so high. It takes a special type of player to reach that level. I still think that Red Sox fans will enjoy watching Benintendi play for hopefully a very long time.
