2016 Fantasy Baseball Player Profile: Andrew Benintendi

Andrew Benintendi is a Red Sox prospect who is 22 years old, one who throws and swings left-handed, who was taken by the Red Sox in the first round of the 2015 draft. It’s been a rather meteoric rise for the 5’10”, 175 lbs outfielder out of Ohio. Benintendi will be called up by the Red Sox and he should see an awful lot of work quickly. We will review his outlook below.

THE NUMBERS

Prospect Rankings (2016): Baseball America (15^th), Baseball Prospectus (46^th), MLB.com (25^th)

He was also named Golden Spikes winner at Arkansas as the best player in College Baseball.

THE SKILLS

“A lot of discussion about it over the last few days,” GM Dave Dombrowski said. “It really came down to, we looked at some possible alternatives (before the trade deadline) to help us in left field. We thought some of them were good choices, but we also thought the cost for some of those were quite high. We also weighed that versus what we thought the availability of being ready for Benintendi would be. And our people kept coming up and saying, ‘We think he can play at the big league level and we think he’s ready.”

Let’s see where Benintendi is at the moment.

Benintendi doesn’t strike out. In 570 professional at-bats he’s only struck out 63 times.

Benintendi walks a fair amount. In 657 professional plate appearances he’s walked 74 times.

Add that together and you end up with a 1.17 BB/K ratio which is an elite mark. If he carries that over to the big league level it will be difficult not to succeed. As a result of his approach, Benintendi is likely to be a solid batting average option from the get-go. You never know how a fella will begin his big league career, but Benintendi has the skills that suggest he won’t be a drain on your club’s batting average.

Benintendi, despite his small stature, can put a lot of pop into the ball. This is often the result of him understanding what pitchers are trying to do to him. He works the count to the point where he can find a pitch he can drive, and he often does that. Twenty homers in 570 at-bats is a solid mark, but realize that he’s not going to power the ball into the seats much the rest of the season as he’s really a 15-20 homer type of bat at the moment.

Benintendi can steal a base. He doesn’t have elite speed, but that hasn’t stopped him from successfully swiping 26 bases in just 151 minor league games. Note that the Red Sox don’t run a ton with all their big bats, and Benintendi has a mere 68 percent success rate swiping bases in the minors, a rate that just doesn’t play very well at the big league level.

PLAYING TIME

Jackie Bradley and Mookie Betts will play daily for the Red Sox in the outfield in center field and right. David Ortiz will obviously be at the designated hitter spot every day. That leaves one spot for Benintendi – left field. Sounds like the plan is for Benintendi and Bryce Bentz to share time in left with Bentz facing lefties and Benintendi squaring off against righties. Of course, that could change once Brock Holt (ankle) or Chris Young (hamstring) returns. Long-term a Benintendi/Young duo out there in left might be killer.

CONCLUSION

Benintendi’s got a nice left-handed swing and a solid understanding of the strike zone. He walks, doesn’t strike out much, and has always hit his entire life. He has an understanding of the game that is only matched by his instincts. He’s the proverbial “can’t miss” prospect.

At the same time, he has no work above Double-A ball, though that might have meant more in the past than it does now. What does matter is that he figures to be in a platoon situation with the Sox which means that, even if he excels, that he is much better deployed in a fantasy lineup that allows you to make daily lineup changes. If not, you will need to keep an eye on the upcoming schedule to decide if he deserves to be active in a weekly lineup. “Now, don’t look for him to hit in the middle of the lineup like he will eventually, but he’s a well-rounded player, he’s a good defensive player, he runs the bases well, he has a good arm,” GM Dombrowski said.

A little bit of power, a little bit of speed, and strong plate discipline mark Benintendi as a certain target in all mixed leagues. For a comparison think Brett Gardner meets Odubel Herrera meets Angel Pagan. Solid stuff with the normal caveats that he’s a rookie, is in a platoon situation, etc. Benintendi is a strong talent that seems likely to be productive hitting in Fenway, though it’s quite possible that he will hit in the lower third of the Sox order which could also obviously limit his plate appearance total.

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 6 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).