Red Sox: Upcoming season is a major one for Andrew Benintendi’s career
2020 will be vital for Red Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi’s development
With just days until the beginning of the 2020 MLB season, Red Sox Nation is still wondering what type of year this will be for the team. There’s no real expectation but, for a team with so much talent, it would be disappointing if this squad didn’t at least remain competitive in its chase for a postseason spot.
A new-look front office and a number of key players moving on from Boston give a very different feeling to this side, and it’ll be interesting to see how they fare in their first, albeit shortened, season.
The changes will give players more important roles and the leading talents on this roster will have to step up to this and deliver when called upon. One player who is going to need to have himself a big year is left fielder and firm fan favorite Andrew Benintendi.
Benintendi has been a regular in the Sox line-up since he was called up back in 2016 at just 21-years-old. He’s since enjoyed three full seasons in the majors, becoming a World Series champion in the process. He’s made strides over that time and has proved himself to be a great player both at the plate and in the field, playing ever so well in the shadow of the Green Monster.
This season and the coming seasons for that matter though are going to be major in terms of his progression to the next level and making sure that he becomes the elite player that he has all the tools to become.
With no Mookie Betts at the top of the Red Sox order, and with him not out in right field, things are going to be very different for in Boston this year, and this is where Benintendi comes in. His importance in the field is going to become more evident this year. Yes, he does play in left but his presence is a familiar one and one that the Red Sox need in order to be comfortable in defensive situations.
Offensively speaking, 2019 was the least efficient year that he’s had. The average was down twenty-four points from the previous season to .266. Production took a hit and a large part of this was due to his woes at the top of the line-up. He lead-off for a portion of the season and went on a 5-for-42 run from that spot, which saw him moved out of it in late May.
Although we most definitely saw the best of Benny’s hitting come from deeper into the line-up, it seems as if he will lead off going into 2020, putting plenty of pressure on the now 26-year-old. One added benefit is that he know’s he’s going to be at the top of the lineup whereas last year Alex Cora kept it a mystery. There’s no doubt he has the tools, and the perfect swing to go with them, but production is needed and it’s needed fast this year.
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With the addition of Alex Verdugo, who will presumably take the reins in right field for the most part, this brings another candidate to lead-off if the same sort of thing that happened last year occurs again with Benny. And, with personnel such as Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, and J.D. Martinez backing up whoever is at the top, there certainly is plenty of depth with plenty of options at Ron Roenicke’s disposal.
There’s certainly potential for Benintendi to get into a groove and solidify himself as the lead-off hitter, but there are plenty of other slots in the line-up where his talent can be effective too.
In terms of the line-up against left-handed pitchers, Roenicke has stated that other new additions in Jose Peraza and Kevin Pillar could be used at the top of the order. This takes a lot of the load off Benintendi, who just needs to concentrate on becoming the best version of himself, which will do wonders for this team.
If Benintendi can get it going against right-handers like every baseball fan knows he can, then slotting him lower down the order against left-handers will bring a different dynamic to his game and the overall game of this talented hitting group.
Roenicke flexible with leadoff hitter. dark. Next
The workload left with the departure of Betts is obvious, but so is the talent remaining who can pick it up. Benintendi is one of these. He can get on base and score runs like Betts has over the past couple of years – 259 runs over the past three seasons. He’s shown his ability to drive in runs, although 2019 was nowhere near his standards, and will prove that again this year. He will have the at-bats and the support he needs in order to have a big year and this will be extremely important to him, his team, and his step up to the next level as a star in this league.