Andrew Benintendi Traded To Royals (2/10/21)

In 2017 the Boston Red Sox boasted the best young outfield in baseball. Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley Jr were all home grown by the Sox system and were perennial favorites. Andrew Benintendi finished second in Rookie of The Year voting in 2017 while Mookie Betts took home AL MVP honors in 2018. Also in 2018, Jackie Bradley won ALCS MVP as the Sox took out the defending 103 win Houston Astros on their way to the World Series. 4 years later all three of them are gone. Thank's a lot Chaim Bloom. Betts was traded a year ago, JBJ is currently a free agent and Andrew Benintendi was traded to the Kansas City Royals tonight. Goodbye Killer' B's

                                                       Sox found a way to screw this up

Benintendi was sent packing in exchange for often injured, all or nothing outfielder Franchy Cordero, 22 year old pitching prospect Josh Winckowski and 3 players to be named later. Benintendi is coming off two declining years so the Sox weren't going to get much for him, but they traded him anyway.

                                                                        OUT

                                                                             IN

So who are these guys? Cordero has battled injuries and ineffectiveness his whole career. He's another one of these "launch angle" guys that can hit the ball a mile once every five days while striking out more often than not...and that's if he's healthy. Winckowski was drafted out of high school by the Toronto Blue Jays and has no control.

You can look at it two ways, with pessimism or optism. For most of us who want to throw banana peels at Bloom for trading Benintendi, they essentially gave up on a 26 year old because he had a below average year and a half. If he turns out to be more like Dwight Evans than we think, this will turn out to be a bad, BAD trade given the low return. The optimistic route focuses on what they will get in the future more than what they gave up. The centerpiece of the deal was the 3 players to be named, 2 from the Royals and 1 from the New York Mets. Since there were no minor league games last years, scouts and talent evaluators had nothing to work with and therefore, it would be unwise to deal for unproven commodities. If the season starts on time and with minor leagues unchanged, Bloom now can watch the Royals and Mets systems like a hawk and pick who he likes. This is a huge risk because the only time a PTBNL turned out to be anything was when the Sox shipped Felix Doubront to the Cubs for Marco Hernandez. If someone like Hernandez is all you're going to get from the Royals and Mets, the Sox are screwed.

Time will tell if the Sox can fix Winckowski's control or pick someone out of the Mets and Royals hats that can be good, but if Benintendi turns his career back into what it was from 2016-18, the Sox essentially lost this trade no matter what happens on their side. After all, as good as Alex Verdugo was in 2020, this was the last image of that season burned into the minds of Red Sox fans and personnel alike:

                                               Thanks a lot Bloom, you're welcome LA