Although Andrew Benintendi had a rough 2019 season, he's primed to have a better year in 2020.
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora noted that of all his players, Benintendi will be the one to have a strong bounce-back season both at the plate and in the field.
“He has a few ideas about what he’s going to work on during the offseason and where we’re going to take him. This guy is going to bounce back,” Cora said according to MLB.com's Ian Browne. “Look at his numbers, look at the doubles. Well, that’s a bad season. There’s just a few things he didn’t do this year that I think he’s going to get better at.”
While going more in-depth, Cora continued to say that he thinks the left fielder will be a more complete player overall in 2020 -- and that's what he loves.
“When you guys ask me Feb. 15 who will be the bounce-back player [in 2020], Andrew will be the guy,” Cora said. “I do think he’s a 20-homer guy, 45-doubles, a complete player. A lot of people love the home runs, I love the complete player. He can be a .400-OBP guy with 20 bags, 20 homers, 45 doubles and play good defense. We’ll take that player.”
Benintendi, 25, averaged .266 at the dish with 13 home runs and 68 RBIs in 2019 -- a rather down year for the University of Arkansas product. Since the 2017 season, Benintendi has seen a dip in his home run production (20 in 2017, to 13 in 2019), RBIs (90 in 2017, to 68 in 2019) and batting average (.271 in 2017, to .266 in 2019).
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While he continuously struggled throughout the 2019 campaign, it was a grind for him -- and things never seemed to get any easier. Benintendi noted a lack of consistency led to a majority of his problems, and he'd like to work on being more steady during the offseason.
Learning from his mistakes could help him have a much better year in 2020 -- at least that's what Cora thinks.
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