Cincinnati Reds: Will Benson potential star at Great American Ball Park
By Bill Felber
By season’s end, we may be looking back at the acquisition of Will Benson by the Cincinnati Reds as one of the great steals of recent years.
The Cincinnati Reds got Will Benson from the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday in exchange for fellow minor league outfielder Justin Boyd and a player to be named.
At first glance, this is the quintessential agate transaction. Benson, after all, hit just .182 in just 61 plate appearances for the Guardians in 2022. He spent most of the season at Triple-A Columbus.
A corner outfielder called up on August 1, he was thoroughly blocked in Cleveland by Steven Kwan and Oscar Gonzalez, two breakout figures in left and right field, respectively, who figure to be cornerstones of Cleveland’s attempt to repeat in the AL Central in 2023.
Even so, Benson is a player with legitimate potential.
If you don’t believe it, just look at him. Physically, we’re talking about a 24-year-old, 6-foot-5, 230-pound workout fiend. A first-round pick by Cleveland out of an Atlanta area high school in 2016, he hit 17 home runs in Columbus with a .279/.426/.522 slash line.
His 22 percent whiff rate at Triple-A, while not exemplary, is better than the MLB average, assuming he can match that in the show. It’s also good for a slugger and, since he’s only entering his age-25 season, he’ll have time to improve his contact game.
Cincinnati is an especially auspicious spot for Benson to break in, given the reputation of the Great American Ball Park as a launching pad. Last season, Great American yielded 217 home runs, more than any other park in MLB.
With poor production numbers in his limited 2022 appearances for Cleveland, Benson won’t be guaranteed playing time in Cincinnati. He’ll have to make the team out of spring training. If he doesn’t, Triple A looms, at least at season’s start. The Reds’ current plans call for Jake Fraley to begin spring as the No. 1 left fielder, also seeing time as a DH.
Fraley’s 2022 season wasn’t exactly a disaster. He batted a career-best .259 for the Reds with an .812 OPS in 247 plate appearances. Still, he’s a career .224 stick who at 6-foot and 195 pounds lacks Benson’s pure physical prowess, and thus his development potential.
That raises a valid question. If you are the Reds and you are expected to go nowhere in the 2023 NL Central, why not give the bigger, stronger, younger prospect at least a shot at supplanting the placeholder either in left field or at DH? You can’t lose and you might win big.
Next. 10 MLB players projected to have monster seasons in 2023. dark
That’s probably exactly what Reds officials were thinking when they acquired Benson Wednesday.