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NEW YORK — Twenty minutes after the Yankees lost the second game of the Subway Series at Citi Field on Wednesday night, YES Network’s Jack Curry reported the Yankees were acquiring Royals outfielder Andrew Benintendi in exchange for minor league pitchers Beck Way, Chandler Champlain and T.J. Sikkema.
Apologies to the Mets and Daniel Vogelbach, but the Benintendi deal is the first big move of the season and comes with less than a week to go before the Aug. 2 trade deadline. Benintendi, an All-Star for the first time this year, won the World Series with the Red Sox in 2018, one year after finishing second to Aaron Judge in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.
“I’m not sure if anything is official, but he’s obviously 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 excited to write his name in the lineup.”
The trade was not yet official at the time of Boone’s press conference, but rest assured he will get the chance to pencil in 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 dugout.
Nick Wosika/USA TODAY Sports
The 28-year-old immediately makes the Yankees better. He fills a few needs for them. He’s a left-handed hitter who can help balance out their lineup, which is still a bit righty heavy despite the additions of Anthony Rizzo, Matt Carpenter and Joey Gallo (more on him later) over the last year.
He also gives the Yankees some much-needed outfield depth. Giancarlo Stanton is on the injured list with left Achilles tendinitis and could be out for the next few weeks. Carpenter has been one of the best hitters in the league since he joined the Yankees, but he is not an everyday corner outfielder, which is where New York has been playing him of late. After getting off to a dreadful start, Aaron Hicks quietly has been one of the Yankees’ more consistent hitters since the beginning of June. But he’s played more than 100 games in a season just twice in his career.
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Here’s what the Yankees’ lineup could look like against a right-handed pitcher, with Stanton.
1. DJ LeMahieu 3B
2. Aaron Judge CF
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 C
Without Stanton, the Yankees can play Hicks in center and Judge in right. Or, they can keep Judge in center, move Carpenter to right and put Josh Donaldson into the lineup at third, with LeMahieu playing second and Torres at DH. You get the idea. There are options. Whichever player in this group is the odd man out of the lineup on any given day would be a solid pinch-hitting option for late in the game, likely for Kiner-Falefa or one of the catchers, Trevino or backup Kyle Higashioka. Anybody but Gallo.
Speaking of Gallo—it really feels like he will not be a Yankee by this time next week. Before Wednesday’s game, Boone spoke about Gallo as if it’s a foregone conclusion the outfielder is on his way out.
“It’s been a tough road for him since coming over, where he hasn’t found that traction,“ Boone said. “There’s no question in my mind that there’s still great baseball ahead for him, whether that’s immediately or in the years to come.”
Boone was then asked about whether Gallo was fit to play in New York. His response was telling by what he didn’t say.
“I don’t know. I just know it’s been a struggle, and I feel like it has weighed on him. He’s carried that around.”
The manager didn’t say he still has faith in Gallo to be a slugger for the Yankees. He didn’t say it’s ridiculous for a reporter to suggest Gallo doesn’t have what it takes to play in New York. Instead, he said, “I don’t know.”
Tom Horak/USA TODAY Sports
Benintendi allows the Yankees to cut ties with Gallo soon, presumably in a trade, even if they get little in return for him. Gallo has always been a three-true-outcomes player, but he’s been mostly a two-outcome guy with the Yankees this year, and that’s even being generous. His 38.1% strikeout rate is the second-highest among MLB hitters with at least 250 plate appearances. He’s walked 14.8% of the time. His three triple slash numbers (.161/.285/.343) all represent career lows. He has 12 home runs, but that’s a small consolation for a player who has twice hit 40 dingers in a season and last year hit 38, 25 of which came before he was traded to the Yankees. His 80 OPS+ indicates he’s been 20% below league average at the plate.
Meanwhile, Benintendi has turned into the inverse of Gallo this season. As a rookie, Benintendi hit 20 home runs. He’s had double-digit homers in each of his four full MLB seasons. This year, he’s gone deep three times. That appears to be by design, though. He’s trading his power for contact, and it’s working. 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 across the Canadian border. At the time, Whit Merrifield said, “The only reason that I would think about getting [the vaccine] at this point is to go to Canada. That might change down the road. Something happens and I happen to get on a team that has a chance to go play in Canada in the postseason, maybe that changes. But as we sit here right now, I’m comfortable with my decision.”
Initial reports suggest Benintendi’s thinking is the same. According to the New York Post’s Jon Heyman, Benintendi will get the vaccine now that he’s a member of a winning team. The Yankees have just one more regular-season series left to play in Toronto, but the two teams could meet in the postseason.
As for the three minor leaguers the Yankees traded to get Benintendi, none of them are among their top-15 prospects. Only Sikkema ranks within the top 20. So, New York still has the prospect capital to spend on a trade for a starting pitcher (Luis Castillo, Carlos Rodón) or a reliever (David Robertson, Andrew Chafin), while still having plenty of talented minor leaguers to hold onto. This seemingly makes it unlikely they’ll trade for Juan Soto. But, then again, it’s unwise to completely count out the Yankees for a generational talent like him.
Either way, in that 20-minute span between when Eduardo Escobar scored the winning run for the Mets and when Curry reported the trade for Benintendi, the Yankees became a whole lot better.
