Red Sox: Cora believes Benintendi can get back to form in 2020

It hasn’t been the best year for Boston Red Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi but his manager feels next year may see a return to form for the star.

During spring training one of the names that had the most excitement around it was that of Andrew Benintendi. The Red Sox left fielder had come off a strong postseason and would add some stellar catches to his highlight reel.

As Opening Day approached Alex Cora sent some shockwaves through Boston as he named Benny as the new lead-off man, which didn’t go over well. Cora’s shakeup of the lineup would cause a ripple effect through the rest of the roster leading to slow starts all around.

Boston’s offense wouldn’t get off the hot start we had become accustomed to seeing and Benintendi would struggle at the top of the lineup. Many wondered why Cora would change the recipe that had delivered such a dominant result in 2018.

Unfortunately for both Benny and the Red Sox, neither would seem to shake the early season missteps. Boston is all but eliminated from the postseason and Benintendi had one of his worst seasons offensively.

When you look at his metrics for this season the biggest thing that jumps out the most is how often he struck out. At this point, Benny has a whopping 136 K’s to his name this year, a massive increase from his 106 in 2018. He’s also walked only 56 times which is significantly down from his total of 71 a year ago.

Despite his poor showing at the plate this year Alex Cora still has all the faith in the world in Benintendi to find his form again in 2020.

"“This guy’s going to bounce back,” Cora said. “And bounce back, whatever. You look at his numbers. The other day I looked at the doubles. And I’m like, ‘That’s a bad season?’ Well, it’s just a few things he didn’t do this year that I do believe he’s going to get better at.”"

It has to feel good knowing you have the full support of your manager despite the lack of success in this season. It’s no surprise that Cora isn’t worried about this season as far as Benny’s offense is concerned, we’ve all seen what the lefty s capable of. If he can have a strong winter and an even better Spring Training, I think we’ll be seeing “Benny Biceps” going on a warpath in 2020.

There is a lot of uncertainty in the Red Sox organization right now as free agency is about to hit hard for many of the players all while they search for a new GM. If Benny can do just what Cora thinks he can and turn this year around next season then that’s one less thing they’ll have to worry about.

AC did give his thoughts on why Benintendi may have racked up the strikeouts this year and it’s all about that pesky strike zone.

"“Up and down,” Cora added. “That’s something we have to work on the rest of the season and obviously in the offseason. This kid striking out 130 times, that’s not normal. Outs are outs. But I think that’s one of the things that happened this year. There’s too many strikeouts on this team right now. Man at third and less than two outs, we swing and miss. Man at second, no outs, we swing and miss. Something we didn’t do last year. For him to strike out 130-something times, no. He knows it.”"