The Boston Red Sox’s current offensive prowess isn’t just limited to their big-league club.
The Red Sox announced Sunday they have promoted outfield prospect Andrew Benintendi from High-A Salem to Double-A Portland. Benintendi posted a .341/.413/.563 slash line in 34 games with Salem this season, tallying one home run and a team-high 32 RBIs. He had 21 extra-base hits in those 34 games, seven of which were triples, and had just nine strikeouts to 15 walks.
The 21-year-old University of Arkansas product has shot up the Red Sox’s farm system since Boston took him No. 7 overall in the 2015 Major League Baseball Draft. He spent 35 games last season with the Short-Season A Lowell Spinners, posting a .290 average with 15 RBIs before getting called up to the Class-A Greenville Drive for the final 19 games of their season.
Benintendi continued to excel in Greenville, collecting 26 hits over those 19 games while hitting four home runs and scoring 17 runs. That earned him a promotion to High-A Salem to start the 2016 campaign.
With his latest promotion, Benintendi’s rise to Double-A Portland is the fastest by a top position player draft pick since Dustin Pedroia, who was promoted to Portland in 2005 after just one full season.
“His whole approach, offensively and defensively, is very advanced,” Salem manager Joe Oliver said recently of Benintendi, via The Boston Globe. “I feel very confident in everything he does out there. His defensive play is very solid. He doesn’t put himself in bad positions. He runs as hard as he needs to to get to a ball. He understands and is under control when he’s tracking a ball in the outfield. He’s not like a young outfielder who’s full-tilt. You can just tell by his body language if he has the ball.”
