Andrew Benintendi off to a hot start at the plate for the Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals got a glimpse of the type of effective offensive threat Andrew Benintendi could be last season after he came over from the Boston Red Sox via a February trade. He’d worked to put the launch-angle oriented, swing-for-the-fences approach behind him.
Despite a couple injuries (ribs, shoulder) that sidelined him for portions of last season, Benintendi registered a career-high 20 go-ahead RBIs (second-most on the team) and his highest RBI total (73) since he knocked in 87 in 2018.
When healthy, Benintendi showed the patient approach and line-drive capability that the Royals felt fit splendidly in their spacious ballpark in the middle of a lineup that already featured some aggressive swingers.
Through the first series of this season, Benintendi has looked even more like the player he’d been before he was seduced by the allure of home runs.
“A lot of time I’ll try to create a lot of power where I shouldn’t, especially in this ballpark,” Benintendi said of his approach at the plate. “Take your singles when you can take your singles. Once it warms up here, then you can start taking shots. I’m just taking what they give me right now, keeping it simple.”
He came into Monday’s series finale against the Cleveland Guardians batting .400 with a .455 on-base percentage, and all he did in his fourth game was go 3 for 3 with a home run, three RBIs, two runs scored and two walks as the No. 3 hitter in the lineup.
“Benny is a self-proclaimed notorious slow starter,” teammate Whit Merrifield said. “Starts like this, he could win MVP this year.”
Benintendi’s ninth-inning homer was the first of the season for a Royals player and his third hit of the game.
He became the fourth Royals player with multiple three-hit games within the first four games of the season. He joined Johnny Damon (two multi-hit games in 1998), Kevin Seitzer (three in 1987) and Hal McRae (two in 1977).
Benintendi, who won a Gold Glove in left field last season and can become a free agent next offseason, is 7 for 13 (.538) with three walks and just one strikeout to go with a .625 on-base percentage.
He walked in his first two plate appearances on Monday. Last season, he walked 36 times in 134 games. In 2019, he walked 59 times in 138 games. He has had two seasons of 70 walks or more dating back to 2017.
“Last year, shoot, I feel like I didn’t walk at all,” Benintendi said. “Typically, I walk a decent amount more than what I did. It goes back to swinging at good pitches and not getting myself out.”
So far this season, Beintendi has batted in front of All-Star catcher Salvador Perez.
Perez tied for the major-league lead in home runs (48) last season, matching a franchise single-season record, and he also led the majors in RBIs (121).
The Royals’ cleanup hitter just started to get going offensively in Monday’s loss to the Guardians. Perez went 2 for 5 with an RBI, and he snapped an 0 for 12 to start the season.
“No one was worried about that,” Benintendi said of Perez’s offense. “It’s easy to look at numbers early in the season and you see 0-for-11, 0-for-12 or whatever it is.
“People start panicking. We’ve got 158 left. He’s probably has 700-something at-bats left, so if anybody was worried about him that’s just stupid. He’ll be fine. It was good to see him get going today a little bit.”
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 7:56 PM.
