Former Red Sox Fan-Favorite Outfielder Struggling After Signing Record Deal

Ex-Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi is having a rough go of it in his first season with the Chicago White Sox.

This past offseason the former (Red) Sox slugger signed a club-record 5-year, $75 million deal with the team from the South Side of Chicago.

For the largest contract given out in the 122-year history of the franchise, it is safe to say the White Sox were expecting him to be an All-Star caliber player at the very least.

So far this season, Benintendi has been anything but that.

Through 58 games this year, Benny has zero home runs. He has the most plate appearance in Major League Baseball this season without hitting a long ball. Even though his power has consistently declined over the last few seasons, this is pretty stunning to see for a once top Red Sox prospect that was expected to be in the 20-homer-a-season range.

This begs the question of where teams need to draw the line when dishing out record-setting money to free-agent players. I know fans seem to fall in love with their favorite advanced stats these days, and in doing so make themselves believe a player is more valuable than they actually are, but teams seem to be falling into this trap more frequently now as well.

Speaking of advanced stats, if you take a trip to Benintendi's baseball savant page it is not a pretty sight. He ranks in the bottom 7% in baseball in hard-hit percentage, the bottom 11% in barrel percentage, and the bottom 21% in outs above average.

But sometimes you don't have to take a deep dive into the stats to know when a move just doesn't seem right. Hearing Andrew Benintendi signed the highest contract in a team's history didn't sound right from the jump. And don't get me wrong, it's not his fault at all for signing the deal. Get paid man! But White Sox fans now have to sit with this move and wonder what could have been accomplished if that money was spent elsewhere.

I'm always pulling for Benny after what he meant to the 2018 Red Sox World Series championship team and how much we pulled for him when he played in Boston. It's just very eye-opening that one of the top prospects in baseball from a few years back, who was expected to have some good pop, is still homerless now over two full months into the 2023 baseball season.

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