KC Royals: 3 reasons why the trade for Andrew Benintendi makes sense
By Cody Rickman
The KC Royals shocked the MLB landscape and fan base by acquiring the left-handed hitting outfielder Andrew Benintendi from the Red Sox.
To bring Andrew Benintendi to the Kansas City Royals, two other teams needed to be involved and that was the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets. The Royals will be sending four players in total in the deal with three players (Franchy Cordero and two players to be named later) headed to Boston and one player (Khalil Lee) headed to New York.
The Benintendi trade has generated considerable excitement amongst Royals fans and rightfully so, as the last time the Royals front office made this splashy of a trade they acquired pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis.
The James Shields trade prior to the 2013 season signaled the coming-out party for the Royals’ best farm system in baseball. The Royals would go onto five consecutive 80+ win seasons and two World Series appearances as an immediate result of the Shields trade.
Here are the three reasons why the trade for Andrew Benintendi makes sense for the KC Royals.
1) Andrew Benintendi’s bat is an offensive upgrade and brings more OBP to the lineup
The Royals have tried to use multiple players in the No. 2 spot in the batting order with Adalberto Mondesi and Nicky Lopez getting the most at-bats the last two seasons. The No. 2 spot in the batting order is arguably the most important especially if your lead-off hitter is adept at getting on-base.
Benintendi provides an immediate upgrade with his 162-game average of .273/.353/.431 with 40 doubles, 4 triples, and 17 home runs. Mondesi and Lopez were only able to muster 162-game averages of .251/.294/.416 and .228/.279/.307 respectively.
The presence of Benintendi’s career .353 OBP and 183 extra-base hits in the line-up every day in the No. 2 spot, gives more opportunity for the big bats to hit with runners on base.
With a potential everyday line-up as such:
- Whit Merrifield RF
- Andrew Benintendi LF
- Jorge Soler DH
- Carlos Santana 1B
- Salvador Perez C
- Hunter Dozier 3B
- Adalberto Mondesi SS
- Michael Taylor CF
- Nicky Lopez/Hanser Alberto 2B
There’s a chance every time Benintendi comes to the plate there could be good speed on the base-paths. He is slightly above league average in pitches seen per plate appearance with 3.93 which will allow runners to advance into scoring position more often. Benintendi does not chase many pitches outside of the zone and is above league average swung at strikes percentage (career 19.0 K%, and 10.5 BB%), so he consistently puts the ball in play.
Benintendi is a solid baserunner himself, twice stealing 20 or more bases in 2017 and 2018. I do not think the Royals will try to run with Benintendi as often as Boston. The threat of the stolen base attempt will be more valuable in generating more fastballs seen for Jorge Soler, Carlos Santana, and Salvador Perez.