Buongiorno Andrew Benintendi
Fridays are usually when you bury news you don’t want as people are coasting into the weekend. I guess the White Sox are just built different. They made good on rumors that had been swirling all week that a free agent outfielder was in their sights.
Happy to see Chicago guy Jesse Rogers breaking the news, hilariously at 3:12. But, we need the money, so let’s get our BFF JP up in here.
Long-time White Sox fans will see that number of $75 million and realize it is the largest (all-in) free agent contract in history. Which for the caliber of player like Benintendi, is fucking ridiculous, but you know, we got….him.
Instant Reaction from the Night Before
Luckily for you, the 108 blog reader, me and the boys already had some thoughts on the White Sox free agent signing that we offered up the night before. We were slightly intoxicated (read “enhanced”) and joined by long-time guy Wally$. See the YouTube show below, HORNY METER starts at approximately the 43 minute mark. We offer up opinions on not only Andrew Benintendi, but also Joey Gallo, Michael Conforto and Michael Brantley (GILF).
If you need the cliff notes. Unc Beef has gotchu with my tweet below, 45 seconds of thoughts on Benintendi (sorry, not sorry, Jennifer Garner).
Clear as mud? That was the short, short version.
Instant Reaction…Day of
I also joined the tenured White Sox analysts from SoxMachine, Josh Nelson and Jim Margalus with a day of, long form discussion on the White Sox newest left fielder. Below is the video from their YouTube channel.
I know, I know, you didn’t come here to watch a bunch of videos and be intimidated by my rugged good looks in the process. You are here to find out about Andrew Benintendi. Not my opinion so much, you probably know if your excited or disappointed. What you are here for is some stats, some data, something to think on about the signing you probably thought wouldn’t happen. I’m on it.
How Does He Help?
You bet your ass he does. Benintendi had a .373 OBP in 2022 (which would’ve been 2nd on the White Sox behind Jose Abreu at .378). His career mark of .351 is also a nice bump to a team that was below average at making left handed turns at 1st base.
Why yes we do. The White Sox had a league worst 6.3% walk rate in 2022. I wrote HERE about ways in which the White Sox could buoy their walk rate back up to respectability in 2023. One segment of the approach was to add a corner outfielder with a 10% walk rate. In the blog, I selected Brandon Nimmo who had a 10.5% walk rate in 2022. Benintendi fits the bill as well with a 10.0% walk rate in 2022 and is a little more in the White Sox financial comfort zone.
Sneaky Good?
The most obvious sneaky (or not so sneaky) skill is that Benintendi is a career 116 wRC+ vs RHP. The White Sox have been on the more dismal end of the spectrum there, especially last year 93 wRC+. Hitting right handed pitching is a big plus on this roster, especially when your most likely left handed hitting candidates went whimpering into the night in 2022 and are still substantial question marks as we careen into the Christmas Holiday.
One additional thing I found interesting was that in 2022, Benintendi basically hit for a high average versus every pitch type. Not sure if that holds up in 2023, but I really like the idea of a guy that in late innings is ready for basically everything.
Oh Yea, What Else?
Benintendi, while not being an expert defender (at least by Outs Above Average, see the table below) in Left Field (despite winning the Gold Glove in 2021) is a ginormous upgrade over our incumbents. I wrote about the White Sox Outfield defense HERE and HERE. It was atrocious in 2022. Benintendi does help that quite a bit, without theoretically losing much from the bats that were playing that position last year.
However, this part of Benintendi’s game isn’t really a weapon. He’s just competent. Which, competency plays, but, you know. My original comment. Jennifer Garner. Basically any professional outfielder would have a similar effect. Yous know?
Any Concerns?
Well, let’s start with my main concern. Andrew, at this point in his life is basically a singles hitter. He hit only 5 home runs last year. Only 31 extra base hits overall. That’s fine on it’s face, but when you look at the White Sox team stats last year, you start realizing that a little more imposing hitting force in a corner outfield might have been more helpful.
The White Sox offense in 2022 was kinda crappy, ranking 18th in wRC+ at 99. Other than being willing to let 4 balls go by, Andrew does all the same shit well and poorly that a pretty bad offense did back in 2022. If you dig deeper into just the Left Field stats his lack of power is even more noticeable. So while Benintendi on balance is a good hitter, other than walk rate, he doesn’t help fix much on a macro basis. He’s more of the same.
But Also…
He’s a left fielder ONLY. That’s right, he hasn’t saddled up in any other grass part of the outfield since 2019. He doesn’t have the arm for right field (his arm is pretty weak) and I would have to think at this point he’s probably not much of a centerfielder given NOBODY has used him there, including the Yankees who were putting Aaron Judge there a bunch last year.
This is fine from the standpoint of it keeps Eloy Jimenez (in theory) in the Designated Hitter position. But if ANYTHING happens in the other outfield positions, well, we are back where we started. A minor consideration, but still it’s a negative, unless you believe in….
In The End….
This is a totally fine middle market signing. Could Benintendi’s lack of power have his stellar walk rate crumble beneath him during his contract? Sure. Also, his contact first bat could age just fine into a full 5 years of above average offense fueled by making tons of contact and getting a little extra pop from playing in a good ballpark.
As much as I saw people excited about his defense on twitter, he’s a little underwhelming when it comes to Outs Above Average. That being said, it’s Left Field, so I expect him to be fine / not regress much there either. His legs certainly won’t need a break so that he can be the hitter everyone believes he is.
For me, the most important point here is that the White Sox (in their own fucked up way) finally came to the realization that this is the market place and paying up for the available talent was a good idea. My last payroll projection had the team rolling in close to $190M in real dollars this year. That looks similar to last year’s payroll.
I don’t know who was behind pushing some additional spending and we’ll see if there is more, but I think, for once, I’ll give the guy who I hammer the most about this questionable roster a little bit of credit for it…
-BeefLoaf
About The Author
beefloaf108
Low information White Sox Fan. Big Feet Energy ORIGINAL 108er Like Whore 2019 Opening Day #SoxMath WINNAR Mediocrity Personified
How many games do you think we can expect from him based on his durability from previous years? How much time do you think he’ll be splitting in LF with Eloy / playing in RF, if at all?
Steamer projects 128 games, his median games played in full seasons is 138, so I’d guess somewhere in between there…
Another sneaky good way to increase their BB%? Don’t let Leury play. That or somehow convince him at age 32 that walks are a good thing.
Yup, I have an entire blog about increasing the team walk rate and that was definitely part of the plan https://fromthe108.com/2022/11/07/lets-fix-the-white-sox-walk-rate/