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NEW YORK — Twenty minutes after the Yankees lost Game 2 of the Subway Series at Citi Field on Wednesday night, the YES Network’s Jack Curry reported that the Yankees were acquiring Royals outfielder André Benintendi in exchange for minor league pitchers Beck Way, Chandler Champlain and TJ Sikkema.
Apologies to Dishes and Daniel Vogelbachbut the Understand the agreement is the first big hit of the season and there is less than a week left until the August 2 trade deadline. Benintendi, a first-time All-Star this year, won the World Series with the Red Sox in 2018, a year after finishing second to Aaron Judge in AL Rookie of the Year voting.
“I don’t know if anything is official, but obviously he’s a really good player in the middle of an All-Star season,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said in his postgame press conference. moments after the news broke. “If we get him, I’ll be happy to put his name in the lineup.”
The trade wasn’t official at the time of Boone’s press conference, but rest assured he’ll get his chance to tap Benintendi right away. Coincidentally, the outfielder was already going to be in the Bronx anyway; the Royals begin a four-game series against the Yankees on Thursday. Benintendi will be in the other canoe.
Andrew Benintendi has a career-high 124 OPS+ this season, which means he was about 24% better than the league average at home plate.
Nick Wosika / USA TODAY Sports
The 28-year-old immediately makes the Yankees better. It fills some needs for them. He’s a left-handed hitter who can help balance their roster, which is still a bit heavy on the right despite the additions of Anthony Rizo, Matt Charpentier and Joey Gallo (more on him later) over the past year.
He also gives the Yankees some much-needed outfield depth. Giancarlo Stanton is on the injured list with left Achilles tendonitis and could be out for the next few weeks. Carpenter has been one of the best hitters in the league since joining the Yankees, but he’s not an everyday corner fielder, which is where New York played him recently. After getting off to a disastrous start, Aaron Hicks Quietly has been one of the Yankees’ most consistent hitters since the start of June. But he has played over 100 games in a season only twice in his career.
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Here’s what the Yankees roster might look like against a right-handed pitcher, featuring Stanton.
1. DJ LeMahieu 3B
2. Judge Aaron heart rate
3. Anthony Rizzo 1B
4. Giancarlo Stanton RF
5. Matt Carpenter DH
6. Gleyber Torres 2B
7. Andrew Benintendi LF
8. Isiah Kiner-Falefa SS
9. Jose Trevino VS
Without Stanton, the Yankees can play Hicks at center and Judge at right. Or, they can keep the judge in the center, move Carpenter to the right and put Josh Donaldson in the lineup in third, with LeMahieu playing in second and Torres in DH. You had the idea. There are options. Whichever player in this group is the odd man in the roster on any given day would be a solid late-game option, probably for Kiner-Falefa or one of the seekers, Trevino or substitute Kyle Higashioka . Anyone but Gallo.
Speaking of Gallo, it definitely feels like he won’t be a Yankee by this time next week. Before Wednesday’s game, Boone spoke of Gallo as if it was a foregone conclusion that the outfielder was about to come out.
“It’s been a tough road for him since he came in where he hasn’t found that traction,” Boone said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that he still has some great baseball ahead of him, either now or in the years to come.”
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Boone was then asked if Gallo was fit to play in New York. His answer was telling by what he didn’t say.
“I don’t know. I just know it was a struggle, and I feel like it weighed on him. He carried that around.
The manager didn’t say he still trusted Gallo to be a puncher for the Yankees. He didn’t say it was ridiculous for a reporter to suggest that Gallo didn’t have what it takes to play in New York. Instead, he said, “I don’t know.”
Joey Gallo’s days in the Bronx seem numbered.
Tom Horak/USA TODAY Sports
Benintendi allows the Yankees to cut ties with Gallo quickly, presumably in a trade, even if they get little in exchange for him. Gallo has always been a player of the three real results, but he’s mostly been a two-result guy with the Yankees this year, and that’s generous. His strikeout rate of 38.1% is second highest among MLB batters with at least 250 plate appearances. He walked 14.8% of the time. His three triple slash numbers (.161/.285/.343) all represent career lows. He has 12 homers, but that’s small consolation for a player who twice hit 40 dingers in one season and last year hit 38, including 25 before he was traded to the Yankees. His 80 OPS+ indicates he was 20% below league average at home plate.
Meanwhile, Benintendi has become Gallo’s inverse this season. As a rookie, Benintendi hit 20 home runs. He had double-digit home runs in each of his four full seasons in MLB. This year he has gone deep three times. This appears to be by design, however. He trades his power for touch, and it works. In 93 games, he’s batting .320 with a .387 on-base percentage, both of which are career highs.
The key question about Benintendi is whether he will get the COVID-19 vaccine so he can play against the blue jays in Toronto. Earlier this month he was one of 14 unvaccinated Royals players who could not make the trip for a series on the other side of the Canadian border. At the time, Whit Merrifield said, “The only reason I would think of getting [the vaccine] at this point is to go to Canada. That could change down the road. Something happens and I happen to be part of a team that has the chance to go and play in Canada in the playoffs, maybe that changes. But as we sit here right now, I’m comfortable with my decision.
Early reports suggest that Benintendi’s thinking is the same. According to New York Postis Jon Heyman, Benintendi will be vaccinated now that he is part of a winning team. The Yankees have only one regular-season series remaining in Toronto, but the two teams could meet in the playoffs.
As for the three minor leaguers the Yankees traded to get Benintendi, none of them are among their top 15 prospects. Only Sikkema ranks in the top 20. Thus, New York still has the prospect capital to spend on a starting pitcher trade (castle louis, Carlos Rodon) or a reliever (David Robertson, Andre Chafin), while still having plenty of talented minor leaguers to retain. This apparently makes it unlikely that they will trade for John Soto. But, again, it’s unwise to completely count the Yankees out for a generational talent like him.
Either way, in that 20-minute span between when Eduardo Escobar scored the game-winning run for the Mets and when Curry signaled the trade for Benintendi, the Yankees got a whole lot better.
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