White Sox manager Pedro Grifol knows what he’s getting in Andrew Benintendi. In his words, a good hitter, baserunner and defender — things Grifol saw firsthand as a coach for the Royals the last two seasons.
The only unknown is what kind of power Benintendi will supply, although the expectation is for more than the five home runs he hit in 2022, playing mostly in spacious Kauffman Stadium. Benintendi hit 20 homers in 2017 and 16 the next season for the Red Sox.
Last season, he pretty much gave in to the pitcher-friendly dimensions at Kauffman, although he hit 17 homers for the Royals (five at home) in 2021.
‘‘Playing at Kauffman in 2021, I got pretty frustrated just flying out,’’ Benintendi said. ‘‘We joked about it all the time, these long flyouts. I’m not the biggest guy [5-9, 175 pounds], so it’s going to take everything I can to hit a ball out of that stadium. So going into last year, I was thinking: ‘Let’s just hit for higher average and higher on-base [percentage]. Hopefully this works, or I’m going to be in a world of trouble.’ ’’
Benintendi’s aim then and now is the same — to be a ‘‘complete hitter’’ — and he expects a lot of his long flyouts will be doubles and home runs at hitter-friendly Guaranteed Rate Field without changing anything.
That would be a good thing for the Sox, who need more power than they featured in 2022, when a drop-off was attributed partly to their approach and partly to injuries that limited Yasmani Grandal, Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson and Eloy Jimenez.
The Sox finished 81-81 and didn’t make the playoffs, even though it was assumed they would. They hit 149 homers last season, which ranked 22nd in the majors. That drop followed 190 homers in 2021 (19th).
Their .387 slugging percentage in 2022 ranked 18th after they slugged .422 in 2021 (10th). The Sox also slugged .375 against right-handed pitchers, as opposed to .430 against left-handers, so adding the left-handed-hitting Benintendi on a five-year, $75 million contract and potentially left-handed-hitting rookie Oscar Colas to the lineup mix might balance out the disparity.
Benintendi is a career .286/.358/.451 hitter against righties and a .324/.408/.492 hitter with runners in scoring position.
Grifol replaces Tony La Russa, and a three-headed hitting-coach brigade of Jose Castro, assistant Chris Johnson and major-league field coordinator Mike Tosar will be in charge of getting the results that didn’t happen under former hitting coach Frank Menechino and assistant Howie Clark last season. There will be an emphasis on power.
‘‘It’s definitely a power-based game now, where it’s how many homers can you hit, because obviously it leads to more runs, more RBI,’’ Benintendi said. ‘‘But in the end, I’m 5-9, 175 pounds; I’m not going to be running out 30 homers.
‘‘But I think the more I’ve played, the more I’ve learned of myself as a player, and I think I can hit for more power. And I think that just playing in this stadium now, there will be more just because the dimensions are different.’’
‘‘If he produces similarly to what he did last year — obviously in two very different ballparks in Kauffman and Yankee Stadium — that’s a real nice shot in the arm for this offense,’’ general manager Rick Hahn said.
Hahn just wants Benintendi to be the good-contact, situational hitter he always has been. And let’s not kid ourselves: 15 homers would be nice, especially if others are doing their share to return the Sox to that 190 number of 2021, even without Jose Abreu.
‘‘There’s always a desire for more pop and thump throughout a lineup, but I think Andrew helps diversify the ways our offense is capable of beating you on a given day,’’ Hahn said. ‘‘It’s not just going to be power-based. But for a variety of reasons, we are going to produce a little better from a power-output standpoint from the guys who have done that in the past.’’
