Andrew Benintendi

[Brewcrew82]

Ken Rosenthal talks about him as a top trade target for the Brewers in this column https://theathletic.com/3309703/2022/05/13/angels-trade-deadline-no-hitter-mlb-baseball/ (subscription required). Overall, I would definitely be in favor of it. Gold Glove left-fielder (can also play center in a pinch) who is really swinging the bat well to start the season. Would add a left-handed hitting option to the outfield other than Jace Peterson and allows you to DH Yelich against right-handers instead of McCutchen. Free agent after the season, so wouldn't require us to part with a top 5 prospect. It's been 11 years since we provided Kansas City with some of the key pieces for their World Series runs, time for them to do the same for us. 

[Robocaller]

He's kinda just OK. He'd certainly be an improvement over Peterson in the OF. 

[wntrtxn21]

It would depend on the cost in prospects. His salary would be about $3.5M so very doable I would guess. Benintendi is a LF (he's terrible in CF) so he would be more of a DH and replacement for Yelich. Do they eat the contract of Cain and DFA him, or DFA/trade (eating most of his contract) McCutchen, or make Taylor part of the trade/send him down?

[Brewcrew82]

6 hours ago, wntrtxn21 said:

It would depend on the cost in prospects. His salary would be about $3.5M so very doable I would guess. Benintendi is a LF (he's terrible in CF) so he would be more of a DH and replacement for Yelich. Do they eat the contract of Cain and DFA him, or DFA/trade (eating most of his contract) McCutchen, or make Taylor part of the trade/send him down?

Benintendi is a Gold Glover in left field, so that's where he would always play. Yelich would be the one to DH against right-handers. In terms of cost, something like Gray or Zamora would be about fair value, maybe even a little less. As far as Cain, a DFA would be preferable; otherwise, he can be the fifth outfielder a la JBJ and serve as a late inning defensive replacement and pinch runner. 

[Robocaller]

6 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Benintendi is a Gold Glover in left field, so that's where he would always play. Yelich would be the one to DH against right-handers. In terms of cost, something like Gray or Zamora would be about fair value, maybe even a little less. As far as Cain, a DFA would be preferable; otherwise, he can be the fifth outfielder a la JBJ and serve as a late inning defensive replacement and pinch runner. 

Where are you getting that? Fangraphs has him as a negative defensively and baseball ref. has him neutral defensively. And his hitting is substandard for a starting corner outfielder.
I'm not saying he'd be a bad guy to get, but if we get an OF he should probably be a CF.

[Brewcrew82]

21 minutes ago, Robocaller said:

Where are you getting that? Fangraphs has him as a negative defensively and baseball ref. has him neutral defensively. And his hitting is substandard for a starting corner outfielder.
I'm not saying he'd be a bad guy to get, but if we get an OF he should probably be a CF.

https://www.mlb.com/news/andrew-benintendi-michael-a-taylor-2021-gold-gloves

He's rated above average on statcast. Definitely a better fielder than Yelich. 

He is a little light on power for a corner outfielder, but still a good hitter. The thing I like about him is that he's a contact hitter and doesn't strike out a ton. Our offense could really use a guy like that. And he would cost very little relative to a Laureano, Mullins, or Reynolds. 

[Robocaller]

4 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

https://www.mlb.com/news/andrew-benintendi-michael-a-taylor-2021-gold-gloves

He's rated above average on statcast. Definitely a better fielder than Yelich. 

He is a little light on power for a corner outfielder, but still a good hitter. The thing I like about him is that he's a contact hitter and doesn't strike out a ton. Our offense could really use a guy like that. And he would cost very little relative to a Laureano, Mullins, or Reynolds. 

Yelich is a gold glove winner too. Which means gold gloves often don't mean anything.

[Robocaller]

I did see a rumor that the Brewers were interested in acquiring Benintendi.  Unless the writer is using Brewcrew82 as his source?

 

[Brewcrew82]

9 hours ago, Robocaller said:

I did see a rumor that the Brewers were interested in acquiring Benintendi.  Unless the writer is using Brewcrew82 as his source?

 

No. That's where I got it from lol.

[Brock Beauchamp]

This isn't a bad pickup idea but I don't see how the Brewers pursue anything but a legit centerfielder first and foremost. I'm becoming more confident that Cain is cooked by the day.

[Brewcrew82]

On 5/17/2022 at 2:45 PM, Brock Beauchamp said:

This isn't a bad pickup idea but I don't see how the Brewers pursue anything but a legit centerfielder first and foremost. I'm becoming more confident that Cain is cooked by the day.

Precisely my thoughts. But there was at least some pushback against my idea of acquiring Laureano or Mullins, so once I saw this rumor, I figured it was worth the bring up. 

[brewmann04]

We could use someone who can hit Lefty pitchers.

[Robocaller]

7 hours ago, brewmann04 said:

We could use someone who can hit Lefty pitchers.

McCutchen

[Lathund]

Remains to be seen if they can make it work roster-wise with Yelich, McCutchen, Cain, Taylor and Renfroe all there already, depending on whether they want to release popular veterans or not. Could get in the way of a trade. But I definitiely think he's someone Brewers would be looking at in free agency after the season, with Cain and McCutchen free agents. Just strikes me as a Brewers-like free agent for some reaosn. 

[sveumrules]

On 5/15/2022 at 8:06 PM, Robocaller said:

Where are you getting that? Fangraphs has him as a negative defensively and baseball ref. has him neutral defensively. And his hitting is substandard for a starting corner outfielder.
I'm not saying he'd be a bad guy to get, but if we get an OF he should probably be a CF.

Benintendi’s negative/neutral overall defensive value is a result of the positional adjustment for playing LF.

His actual fielding in LF has graded out at +29 DRS and +10.7 UZR for his career. 

OAA has been less impressed at -16, though that doesn’t include throwing, where Benintendi has graded out positively by both DRS (+8) and UZR (+6.9) over the course of his LF career.

Either way, I don’t really see the fit. If the Brewers do decide to pursue an upgrade before the deadline I would expect it to be more of a true CF than someone like Benintendi who has played less than 10% of his career innings there.

[SandyTolan]

 

What  about promoting from within?  

 

Before the Brewers let go of massive farm talent, for a Reynolds or Mullins e.g., how about promoting Joey Wiemer and his .994 OPS and 11 HRs NOW to Nashvile, and giving him a month. If he rakes there too, he could come up to MLB and get serious playing time in CF. The Brewers would have a full month to evaluate whether Joey is the boost we need. If not, he can finish his development in AAA and the Brewers could trade for a different CF, maybe a rental, or a Ramon Laureano as someone recently suggested. Provided Joey continued to hit well in Nashville, it'd be worth giving him an MLB CF tryout in July.  This way they'd also give Lo Cain and TT another month to bring up their OPS closer to ,750.  And if they do, no need to promote Wiemer, or trade for another CF.

 

 

 

[DuWayne Steurer]

Wiemer hasn't played 40 games at AA yet.  The Brewers aren't going to push him that aggressively.  Other than a few cases (Braun, for one), they just don't push guys through the system that fast. 

Unless or until the Brewers start losing games because of the CF production, the need isn't there to rush Wiemer.  Let him develop at the pace that management feels is proper. 

We still have Taylor, there's plenty of trades to explore, and honestly, I'd rather see them try any number of things before rushing a guy who hasn't played a third of a season at AA to the bigs.  

[brewers888]

I haven't seen Wiemer play but he looks a lot more like a corner outfielder than a center fielder. The Brewers are not going to give up much on defense in center even if the offense is far better.

[Roderick]

Doesn't Taylor rate at least average defensively in CF? 

He has really heated up.  .850 ops for May.   He doesn't have a huge split hitting lefties/righties - so don't need a platoon option. 

 

Edit:  Ended up .870 OPS for May 

[Brewcrew82]

4 hours ago, Roderick said:

Doesn't Taylor rate at least average defensively in CF? 

He has really heated up.  .850 ops for May.   He doesn't have a huge split hitting lefties/righties - so don't need a platoon option. 

Yes. I really do like the fact that Taylor is hitting to the point now where we don't HAVE to acquire a centerfielder at the deadline. Provides us the flexibility to go after the best value regardless of position, as opposed to using all of our chips on a specific piece. 

[Madhawk23]

On 5/25/2022 at 1:51 PM, Brewcrew82 said:

Yes. I really do like the fact that Taylor is hitting to the point now where we don't HAVE to acquire a centerfielder at the deadline. Provides us the flexibility to go after the best value regardless of position, as opposed to using all of our chips on a specific piece. 

Especially when there aren't many great CF targets that look like they are going to be on the market at this year's trade deadline.  

[sveumrules]

On 5/25/2022 at 9:21 AM, Roderick said:

Doesn't Taylor rate at least average defensively in CF? 

Taylor's got a bunch of small samples across all three OF spots. but amazingly all three systems have had him above average at each spot...

LF (292 Innings) +1 DRS | +2.0 UZR | +2 OAA

CF (308 Innings) +4 DRS | +1.4 UZR | +2 OAA

RF (333 Innings) +2 DRS | +1.2 UZR | +2 OAA

OF (934 Innings) +7 DRS | +4.6 UZR | +6 OAA

[Eye Black]

Offensive production among outfielders league wide seems down a bit. There are only 20 outfielders among qualified hitters that are above a 120 wRC+. While Benintendi (144 wRC+) is one of those, I wonder if Ian Happ (126 wRC+) could also be a popular trade target for teams in need. I realize acquiring him from the Cubs isn’t likely for the Brewers, especially since he has 1.5 years remaining under contract, but I have to think his name will be brought up a bit as we approach the deadline. 

[JohnBriggs12]

Count me in on Benintendi.  Peterson's hot streak has kind of masked the need for another lefty bat, but with both Yelich and Tellez slumping, they could certainly use him, and there's certainly room for a lefty DH though they could go with Peterson there too.

The offense from the OF needs to improve.  Renfroe will help, but they could use more consistent production from the rest of the group.

As for help in behind Taylor CF, anyone noticed that Albert Almora has seemed to be reborn in Cincy?  His defense was never in question.

 

 

[nate82]

53 minutes ago, JohnBriggs12 said:

Count me in on Benintendi.  Peterson's hot streak has kind of masked the need for another lefty bat, but with both Yelich and Tellez slumping, they could certainly use him, and there's certainly room for a lefty DH though they could go with Peterson there too.

The offense from the OF needs to improve.  Renfroe will help, but they could use more consistent production from the rest of the group.

As for help in behind Taylor CF, anyone noticed that Albert Almora has seemed to be reborn in Cincy?  His defense was never in question.

 

 

Benintendi would be fine but I think the Brewers go with Mancini from the Orioles.  

I don't trust any offense from someone playing in Cincy.  I think Cincy is more problematic than Coors is.