Red Sox organizational plan continues to be a complete mystery
By Colin Lynch
What was the Red Sox plan with Andrew Benintendi and Hunter Renfroe?
It’s easy to see the motivation to move on from Hunter Renfroe in the off-season heading into 2022.
The soon-to-be 31-year-old outfielder was coming off one of his best offensive seasons as a pro. And despite leading all of MLB in outfield assists, Renroe’s defense in right field was always a cause for concern, especially with the wild right-field dimensions of Fenway Park.
So flipping him for a solid MLB outfielder and some prospects really did make a ton of sense. But moving Renfroe to bring back Jackie Bradley Jr. and his absolutely horrid contract is still a serious head-scratcher and a glaring miss in a string of high-profile deals for Bloom. It’s bad enough that Bradley Jr. was coming off one of the worst statistical seasons in MLB history for a former All-Star, but the $ 9 million he was owed in ’22 and the $ 12 million he was owed in ’23 made the deal all the more disgusting.
While some people felt that Andrew Benintendi needed to be moved, it’s a much less obvious move than the Renfroe departure was, but the return was just as bad.
The angle that Beni needed a change of scenery was certainly acceptable, but giving him away for nothing was not. Bloom sent Benintendi to KC in exchange for Franchy Cordero, an outfielder who was the exact same age as Benintendi at the time and never really showed that he was going to be able to limit his strikeout numbers or reach the power numbers that would make his problems with making contact acceptable.
The man took impressive batting practice, but that was about as impressive as the offensive game ever got. The Red Sox also received Josh Winckowski, a young RHP with a big frame and fastball that runs up to the high 90s. After a somewhat promising start in 2022, he limped to the finish with a 5.89 ERA and a 1.5 WHIP. At just 24 years old, there is hope that he can contribute to the Sox pen in 2023. The rest of the deal included Freddy Valdez and Grant Gambrell, two longshot MLB hopefuls.