The White Sox have a new left fielder. According to Jesse Rodgers of ESPN, free agent outfielder Andrew Benintendi has agreed to a five-year deal worth $75 million with the White Sox. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal was the first to report the financial details of the contract.
Benintendi’s $75 million deal makes his deal the largest free agent contract in franchise history in terms of total guaranteed money. The previous record was held by Yasmani Grandal’s four deal 73 million dollar deal.
Benintendi is a former All-Star, Gold Glove Winner, and World Series Champion. He has a career slash line of .279/.351/.431 and checks many of the boxes the White Sox were looking for. He is an immediate upgrade in left field and adds an impact left-handed bat to the lineup.
Benintendi is a disciplined hitter, ranking in the top 25 percentile of all MLB hitters in strikeout, chase, and whiff rates. He also finished the 2022 season in the 74th percentile in walk rate after drawing 52 free passes.
The 28-year-old is coming off an All-Star season after hitting .304/.373/.399 with five home runs and 51 RBIs. He was having a career year in Kansas City, batting .320, before getting traded to New York, where his average plummeted to .254
Benintendi was once considered a top outfield prospect with the Red Sox after getting drafted seventh overall. He finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2017 after hitting a career-high 20 home runs and 90 RBIs. He had another strong season in 2018, batting .290 with 16 home runs and 87 RBIs and eventually helping lead the Red Sox to a World Series. During the postseason, he had four extra-base hits and hit .333 during the World Series.
While Benintendi is a Gold Glove winner, his defensive metrics don’t jump off the page. For his career, he has a -16 in Outs Above Average. However, most of the damage came when he was in Boston, having to play left field with the Green Monster looming behind him. It remains one of the more difficult ballparks to play left field in, which explains his -10 OAA in 2019 and -8 mark in 2017.
Last season he graded in the 59th percentile in OAA and 52nd percentile in outfield jump. He is also a major upgrade, defensively, from Eloy Jimenez, Gavin Sheets, and Leury Garcia, who were pegged to be the left fielders the way the roster was currently constructed.
His signing came as a shock to those who didn’t think the White Sox would raise their payroll. But at $15 million a year, the deal is very fair for a player of Benintendi’s caliber.
While the power numbers are concerning ( just 73 home runs in seven years), he hits for average and has some speed. It will make a heavily right-handed lineup a bit more difficult to navigate.
Pedro Grifol’s presence may have had something to do with the signing. The two shared a dugout in Kansas City while Grifol was serving as the bench coach. It was one of his ten years on the Royals coaching staff before getting hired to manage the White Sox. During Bentendi’s Kansas City tenure, he earned a Gold Glove Award and began an All-Star campaign the following season before getting traded.
His recent performance landed him the long-term deal he had been seeking while the front office found their next left fielder.
Not one of the big stars but a definite upgrade.