The future is now.
At least that’s the philosophy Dave Dombrowski and the Red Sox are buying into. That philosophy forced them to splurge on at least one more plane ticket than expected for the team’s West Coast road trip.
The Red Sox’ president of baseball operations confirmed Monday – hours after staying surprisingly quiet at the MLB trade deadline – that prized prospect Andrew Benintendi would leave Double-A Portland and join the big league club Tuesday night in Seattle, skipping Triple-A Pawtucket altogether for now. Manager John Farrell later said that the 2015 No. 7 pick out of Arkansas would make his first start in left field tonight at Safeco Field.
Benintendi debuted as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning of a 5-4 loss to Seattle on Tuesday night. He struck out looking with the tying run on first base in the top of the ninth inning.
Dombrowski admitted that Benintendi and Yoan Moncada, the Red Sox’ No. 1 prospect, were players that many teams called about before Monday’s deadline. Beat writers for the Chicago White Sox suspected that Benintendi would’ve likely been the front-man in a deal for starting pitcher Chris Sale.
Dombrowski called the two shining stars “special players.” He said the team wasn’t close to dealing either of them, adding that he was looking to add another outfielder but nothing came to fruition. He also said before Monday’s 2-1 win over Seattle that he expected both Moncada and Benintendi to be in Boston before the season ended.
As far as the decision to call up Benintendi, the Sox boss told reporters, “Our people kept coming up and saying, ‘We think he can play at the big league level and we think he’s ready.’ … So it really came down to we think he can come up here and contribute to the club and help us win.”
His college coach, Dave Van Horn, told the Monitor in July that Benintendi is a guy “who can play in the big leagues and can do it for a long time,” because “he does everything well.”
Benintendi, who played primarily in center field for the Portland Sea Dogs, will likely be viewed as a left fielder in Boston. In the two weeks leading up to Monday’s call up, he made four starts in left field. But Van Horn said in July that Benintendi is capable of playing both corner outfield spots.
Dombrowski told reporters on June 24 that the front office didn’t think the 22-year-old was ready for The Show, saying, “He can play here defensively at this point. Really, the rest of his game could play here. It’s just from an offensive perspective, adjustments are still needed.”
Since then, Benintendi has hit .340 in 120 plate appearances with nine doubles, four triples, five home runs, 24 RBI and only nine strikeouts. He also started the Futures Game on July 10, alongside Moncada, who was named MVP after crushing a two-run home run into the second deck of San Diego’s Petco Park.
Benintendi was the sixth 2016 Futures Game participant to be called up to the majors in the 23 days since the game, joining position players Ryon Healy (Oakland), Alex Bregman (Houston), David Dahl (Colorado) and pitchers Reynaldo Lopez (Washington) and Carson Fulmer (White Sox). Catcher Gary Sanchez became No. 7 Tuesday night when he was called up by the Yankees.
Benintendi is the first prospect in the Red Sox system to bypass Triple-A since Jackie Bradley Jr. was first called up in 2013, something Dombrowski said he had no problem doing in the past and reiterated Monday.
“It’s really not that unusual,” he said. “I’ve really brought up a lot of guys from Double-A. To me, it’s always been – Triple-A is a very important league, but it’s also a situation where if they can hit at the Double-A level, if they can play at the Double-A level, it shows that they have the capabilities” to play in the majors.
According to ESPN, Dombrowski compared Benintendi’s development to Michael Conforto of the New York Mets and Kyle Schwarber of the Chicago Cubs. Conforto skipped Triple-A before making his debut, a year after being drafted 10th overall, and Schwarber, the fourth pick in the 2014 draft, did the same. Both players eventually did stints in Triple-A, as did Bradley Jr.
Benintendi, who became the first Arkansas player to win the Golden Spikes Award as college baseball’s best player in 2015, will add depth to the Red Sox outfield as Blake Swihart and Chris Young continue to rehab from nagging injuries. Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald said Farrell intends to have the left-handed Benintendi ease into the majors in a platoon situation in left field with right-handed hitter Bryce Brentz, giving Brock Holt the opportunity to return to a utility role.
It might be beneficial for the Red Sox to have three natural center fielders roaming the outfield. Mookie Betts spent a majority of the 2015 season in the position before relinquishing it to Bradley Jr., who has long been viewed as Boston’s center fielder of the future.
While teams like the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers “sold the farm” at the deadline to attempt a run at the World Series, many thought Dombrowski would do the same. It turns out he might’ve only had to look within his own organization to find the players he needed for the future.
(Michelle Berthiaume can be reached at 369-3338, mberthiaume@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @MonitorMichelle.)