Red Sox Promote Top OF Prospect Benintendi To Double-A Portland
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Red Sox announced Sunday night that top outfield prospect Andrew Benintendi has been promoted to the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs.
The seventh-overall pick in the 2015 draft batted .341 with 21 extra-base hits and 32 RBI in just 34 games with the Single-A Salem Red Sox. Benintendi has a .973 career OPS in the minor leagues and appears on the fast track to reaching the major leagues by the 2017 season, if not the fall of 2016.
"A meteoric rise is what you're seeing," 98.5 The Sports Hub's Tony Massarotti said of Benintendi's climb on Sunday's Sports Final on WBZ-TV. "Double-A is the big developmental level, to be there already [is impressive]. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility to see him by the end of the year.
"When I say that, I don't mean he's going to come up and rip up the major leagues. But if he goes to Double-A and the production continues, I think the next logical steps is to consider a big league promotion," said Mazz.
Benintendi is ranked as the No. 2 prospect in the Red Sox system by SoxProspects.com, behind only second base prospect Yoan Moncada. He won the 2015 Dick Howser trophy as the national college player of the year while at Arkansas, as well as the Baseball America College Player of the Year and the Golden Spikes Award as the best amateur player in the country.
