By Tony Massarotti, 98.5 The Sports Hub
Honestly, you shouldn’t be annoyed that the Red Sox traded in Andrew Benintendi. But you should be furious about what they got for him because it sure feels like a giveaway.
Last night, in case you missed it, the Red Sox sent Benintendi to the Kansas City Royals in a three-team exchange that earned them outfielder Franchy Cordero of the Royals and pitcher Josh Winckowski of the New York Mets. Winckowski is a 16th-round pick that has never rolled above Single-A. Cordero is an athletic specimen who is said to have the baseball instincts of a hockey puck.
And understand this: being the Red Sox Sending $ 2.8 million to the Royals to cover nearly half of his $ 6.6 million salary this season.
Here’s what ESPN’s David Schoenfield wrote about Cordero just after midnight:
I guess you never know, but the chances seem unlikely that the tools will ever come together. Maybe the Red Sox see something they think they can fix, but the scouting reports on Cordero have always said that he just scores low on his natural baseball instincts.
In fairness to the Red Sox, Winckowski sounds like he has a chance. And let me emphasize – an OPPORTUNITY. He won’t be until June 23. It weighs six feet and weighs 202 pounds. In 54 minor league games – 53 starts – he has a 3.35 ERA with 237 strikeouts and 86 walks in 263 innings. But it has also been traded twice.
The real questions here pertain to the overall values and direction of the Red Sox organization as a whole, especially when CEO Chaim Bloom sounded apologetic after the deal, which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
Bloom said, “I know for our fans that this is not the first time in the past year, plus they have seen a player leave who is important to them and important to the organization. I know it is difficult. I know it is painful. We are clearly doing what we think is good for the organization. … We felt we were able to meet a number of needs. It gives us a solid foundation in the future that it was worth swallowing hard and taking that painful step by trading a player who is really important to us and very talented. “
Let’s say this again: the problem wasn’t that Benintendi, which has been disappointing in recent years, was being traded. The issue concerns what the Red Sox are building. Cordero doesn’t really sound like a baseball player. When I read his profile, the first name that came to mind was Wily Mo Pena, a physically imposing powerhitter who took over the Red Sox in 2006. He actually lasted here for a year before they became the second team to show its “potential,” Which is a dirty word in the sport. It’s a euphemism for “underachieving”. There’s nothing worse than a great athlete who doesn’t have the skills to play baseball. And Cordero doesn’t really feel like a ball player.
See, Chaim Bloom deserves a shot. Between the junk he inherited and the pandemic, he has just started rebuilding the Red Sox. But since the 2020 season trading deadline, it certainly feels like the Red Sox have become Tampa Bay North – albeit without Tom Brady – which is a nice way to say they’ve added a collection of misfits and rejections from other organizations. I don’t spot Bloom. I’m just saying it doesn’t feel like the Sox are building a championship-caliber organization, they are just throwing things at the wall.
All this brings us back to Benintendi and a very simple question: what the hell happened here? His regression has been so acute for the past two years that it felt like an organizational failure in player development. In 2018, he was a well-rounded, true baseball player, with 41 doubles, 103 runs scored, an .830 OPS, 16 homers and 21 steals while defending well. Since then, he has done nothing but get worse. Did the Red Sox try to turn him into a home run by preaching launch angle and power? Is a man like him no longer fit for the corrupted, analytical, modern game? Was there a personality conflict with instructors? Something went wrong here. Something concerning.
And then there’s this: from 2013-2016, the Red Sox had checkers where they picked the seventh, seventh, and 12th. With those choices, they brought in Trey Ball, Benintendi and Jay Groome. That was all before Bloom got here, so it’s not his fault. But it speaks of a gross organizational failure.
This year, as we all know, they have Red Sox’s fourth choice in design, their highest design position since the 1960s. Let’s hope they make good use of it. If they don’t, this could take a lot longer than anyone ever imagined.
You can hear Tony Massarotti during the week from 2-6 p.m. EST on the Felger & Massarotti program. Follow him on Twitter @TonyMassarotti.