The Royals have placed outfielder Andrew Benintendi on the 10-day injured list due to a right rib injury, manager Mike Matheny told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anne Rogers). Outfielder Edward Olivares is being called up to take Benintendi’s 26-man roster spot.
The specific injury occurred during a throw Benintendi made during yesterday’s 6-3 Royals loss to the Athletics, though Matheny said Benintendi has “felt something for a bit” beforehand. This could potentially indicate a longer stay than just 10 days on the IL for the outfielder, especially since a broken rib led to an early shutdown of Benintendi’s 2020 season with the Red Sox.
It’s an unfortunate turn of events for both Benintendi and the Royals, as the 26-year-old is in the midst of a quality bounce-back season. Benintendi has hit .283/.340/.429 over 241 plate appearances for Kansas City, good for a 110 OPS+ and 112 wRC+. After a slow start over the first three weeks, Benintendi has posted an .880 OPS over his last 174 PA.
Kansas City acquired Benintendi as part of a three-team trade with the Red Sox and Mets in February, with the Royals ultimately parting ways with Franchy Cordero, Khalil Lee, and minor league righties Grant Gambrell and Luis De La Rosa in their share of the deal. It was one of multiple aggressive moves by the Royals front office to make the team more competitive, though the club is now 30-34 after an early surge in April. While K.C. plans on becoming full-fledged contenders as soon as 2022, Benintendi’s injury (depending on how long he’s sidelined) might point the club towards selling at this year’s trade deadline.
With Benintendi out of action, Olivares might get the chance at an extended look at the big league level. Acquired from the Padres in the Trevor Rosenthal trade last August, Olivares hasn’t hit much in 120 PA in the majors, but he has been shredding Triple-A pitching this season (a .370/.452/.610 slash line and six homers over 115 PA).
And that, kids, is why you never put too much into a throw. Man was pressing for that outfield assist and he cracked a rib…ouch.
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.
Could be 6 weeks
I’m still to this day so confused at Benetendi’s popularity outside of the East Coast bias. Was he ever good?
Epitome of lazy. All you have to do is click on his name in the article.
Your mom
I think he’s a good player. He showed early on in Boston what he could do and having a solid year so far in KC.
Is this season setting records for injuries? Beiber on the 10 day as well.
I don’t think the Royals will be sellers if for no other reason than that they don’t really have any significant assets that they won’t want to keep around. Closest might be Carlos Santana and Mike Minor but until Nick Pratto and/or any of the college pitchers from the ‘18 show they can produce in the majors, I think both Santana and Minor stay around.
The nice thing about both of those signings is that if the Royals are competitive come the All-Star Break, they can hang on to them and possibly even add other pieces to make a run. But if they’re falling out of it and are looking more toward the next few seasons, they can deal them for some young talent. I liked both of those contracts for them for those reasons.
Yea Minor wouldn’t net much even if he’s playing at a 98% optimal rate. We saw this movie already
Think they just keep him and Carlos tbh .
They will probably be mouse quite at the deadline- Maybe a guy like Holland moves out but not much
Most of there hard calls will be internal next offseason with Duffy and Soler becoming free agents. They had a nice offseason last year, keep the ball rolling this year and the mid 2020’s look good for KC
Soler is not a hard call. He’ll be lucky to get a major league contract at this point.
Don’t wish ill will or injuries on any player but this could not have come at a better time for the Tigers. Benintendi has absolutely killed us this year.
Screw it, if he’s out for significant time make a deal and bring him home. Send KC a respectable package controllable beyond ’22 and pencil him in for late this season and next year.
Send KC a respectable package controllable beyond ’22
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With as well as Winckowski has been doing, I wonder if KC would make a straight-up trade?