Top Boston Red Sox executive defends trading Andrew Benintendi to Kansas City Royals
Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom reflected on the club’s decision to trade outfielder Andrew Benintendi to the Kansas City Royals in a recent interview.
Bloom reasserted that the trade, from the Red Sox perspective, wasn’t about “running away from” Benintendi. Rather, he said it centered around Boston’s desire to acquire multiple young prospects and bolster the club’s farm system.
Bloom, now in his second season in charge of the Red Sox baseball operations, made his comments on Boston sports talk radio station 98.5 The Sports Hub during last Thursday’s edition of “The Baseball Hour with Tony Mazz,” to host Tony Massarotti, a former longtime baseball beat writer and columnist.
“The main impetus behind this deal was not us betting against Andrew,” Bloom said. “Obviously, he has been through some ups and downs through the prior years, but that wasn’t the main motivator for us here.
“It was basically us looking at having two years until free agency with Andrew and then having the opportunity to get a handful of prospects for him that could help our future and also a player in Franchy Cordero, who we knew had a lot of upside and a lot of risk. Obviously, thus far we have not seen that upside.”
Through 42 games this season, Benintendi has batted .290 with a .355 on-base percentage and .381 slugging percentage with five doubles, three home runs, 15 RBIs and six stolen bases.
Benintendi has batted anywhere from the No. 2 spot to No. 7 in the Royals’ order. He has rebounded nicely after a slow start. He batted .225 with a .311 OBP in April (22 games).
Cordero, an outfielder who hit his first home run of the season Sunday, has slashed .179/.228/.274 in 34 games.
“Every part of the deal was important to us,” Bloom said. “But to the question of, “Why would you trade Benintendi for Cordero?’ We wouldn’t have. We traded Benintendi for five players, and one of them is Franchy Cordero.”
The Royals acquired Benintendi in a February three-team deal with the Red Sox and New York Mets.
The Royals gave up one of their top prospects — outfielder Khalil Lee — as well as Cordero and two minor-league players to be named in exchange for Benintendi. The Royals also received $2.8 million from the Red Sox. Benintendi will make $6.6 million this season.
Lee went to the Mets and made his MLB debut this season.
The Red Sox received right-handed minor-league pitcher Josh Winckowski from the Mets, Cordero from the Royals, and two players to be named from the Royals as well as one additional player to be named from the Mets.
Bloom said in his interview that the Red Sox were still evaluating players who could potentially serve as the players to be named later to complete the trade.
In 485 career games, Benintendi has posted a .273/.353/.435 slash line. In his three full seasons as a starter (2017-19), he averaged 16 homers, 82 RBIs and 17 stolen bases per season.
He bulked up and tried to become more of a power-oriented hitter going into the 2019 season. His offensive production suffered as a result of his shift in focus.
He slashed .266/.343/.431 with 13 home runs in 2019, but his strikeout rate went from 16 percent the year prior to 22.8 percent. He stole just 10 bases in 2019.
Injuries limited Benintendi to just 14 games during last year’s pandemic-shortened season. He went 4 for 39 with a .103/.314/.218 slash line.
This past offseason and during spring training, Benintendi shifted his focus back to his natural swing and stopped trying to hit the ball in the air in hopes of hitting home runs.
“I feel like I’m pretty set in my approach right now to where I’m just taking what they give me,” Benintendi said Saturday night after his first three-RBI game since July 30, 2019. “Line drives to left, up the middle and to right. I’m not trying to do too much, I’m staying within myself.
“Typically things in the past, for myself personally, have gone well when I just staying within myself. Then vice versa when I try to do too much. I’m trying to check the ego at the door and just try to do everything you can to hit a line drive and hit it hard.”
