Although he signed the largest free-agent contract in franchise history, Andrew Benintendi isn't designed to draw attention, and that's holding up so far in his first time springing with the White Sox.
It'd help if he had a louder spring, but the performance he's turned in thus far is representative of the shape of the production he can have -- .233/.378/.33 with one extra-base hit in 37 plate appearances, but that XBH was a homer, and he's also walked more times (six) than he's struck out (five).
Regardless of the numbers, Benintendi has the privilege of being able to use spring training to get his work in, and James Fegan followed up on his offseason report to see how Benintendi judges his attempts to get the ball in the air to the pull field.
For Benintendi, the focus is really something he has done for his entire career: a two-handed finish that emphasizes keeping the barrel up through the whole swing. It has worked for him before. It’s something he has almost always done in games. There’s just that one little wrinkle that his top hand seemingly always comes off when he’s practicing in the cage.
“Trust me: I don’t know, I’ve tried to figure it out,” Benintendi said of the quirk. “In BP I’ll do a one-hand finish every time, but if I do that in a cage, I can’t. But I’m a big two-hand finish guy.”
The other Andrew (Vaughn) gets a co-starring role in this story for his own attempts to stop rolling over pitches he can lift, although he still hasn't returned from his sore back. Fegan said Vaughn resumed swinging Tuesday, and Pedro Grifol remains confident that it won't take Vaughn too many more at-bats to find where he left off, for those tracking how Grifol keeps the public apprised about a key member of the Sox beating their projections.
Spare Parts
The tweaks to the pitch clock are in, and the biggest adjustments account for players who are returning to their stations after events that make them move -- pitchers covering first, hitters getting brushed back out of the box, catchers who need time to suit up after shedding their gear to grab a bat.
The White Sox and Rangers only needed an hour and 54 minutes to complete a 2-0 split-squad victory. Clevinger says the pitch clock is inspiring hitters to swing earlier.
Jon Greenberg resumes his media coverage to catch up with Jason Benetti, who adds that he can miss a maximum of 35 White Sox games for other sports.
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- 'Taught me a lot': Classic preps Ruiz for high leverage -- MLB.com
Tim Anderson, Lance Lynn and Kendall Graveman will be the last to rejoin White Sox camp after Team USA's loss to Japan in the World Baseball Classic. For the guys who fell short of the final, they all came back richer for the experience. It seemed especially vital for José Ruiz, whose long-running struggles with high-leverage situations seemed to disappear while pitching for Venezuela.
Crochet isn't expected to pitch in any Cactus League games, but he should be seeing some rehab action in April, and there are no signs of setbacks.
Spring training hasn't done anything to jolt the White Sox out of the bottom 20 percent, although the blurb following their placement at 26th is kinder than others in the neighborhood. It also helps that the Tigers are 25th, and the Royals are 29th.
