Former All-Star turned his season around despite playing with White Sox

Chicago White Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Former All-Star has completely turned his season around despite playing with pitiful White Sox

By Victor Barbosa | Last updated Sep 17, 2024 11:13 AM ET

The historically bad 2024 Pale Hose have all of a sudden won three games in a row following their 8-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday. Chicago is still just 36-115 on the year, has already set a single-season franchise record for losses and is six defeats away from breaking the 1962 New York Mets' all-time mark of 120 setbacks in a campaign.

While most of the White Sox batters have struggled mightily all season long, one-time All-Star outfielder Andrew Benintendi has hit a power surge in recent weeks. What makes Benintendi's hot streak so curious is that he had been having a historically poor year at the plate over the first two months of the season.

Andrew Benintendi is on fire for the White Sox:
He has 11 homers in his last 37 games, including two tonight.
He has 2 more homers in his last 148 plate appearances than he had during a 2-year stretch from April 12 2022-April 26 2024 when he hit only 9 homers in 296 games and…
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) September 17, 2024

In late May, "Benny" was threatening to finish his second season on the South Side by posting the worst OPS among qualified players since 1968.

After an 0-for-4 showing during Chicago's 7-2 loss vs. the Toronto Blue Jay on May 29, Benintendi was slashing .189/.226/.265 and had a .491 OPS. Benintendi ranked second on the White Sox in at-bats (185) and plate appearances (195), but sixth in runs scored (12), walks (nine) and total bases (49) at the time, and his OPS and slash line were last on the team as well.

As the rest of the offense has had trouble with consistency (to put it lightly), the 2015 seventh overall pick has turned his season around.

His triple slash and OPS have only increased since the end of May and while none of the numbers are pretty overall, his current .228/.292/.400 slash line and .691 OPS are all season highs.

Benintendi went 2-for-3 with two home runs, four RBI and two walks on Monday in one of his best games of the year. It was the 30-year-old's third two-home run contest of 2024 and just the sixth time he's drawn two walks this season.

Benintendi now leads the White Sox in home runs (19) and is second in runs scored (48), RBI (59), walks (40) and total bases (177). He finished August with seven home runs, 17 RBI and a solid .278/.363/.589 slash line and has been even better through 14 games in September with four home runs, 11 RBI and a .298/.370/.575 triple slash.

A 2022 All-Star, Benintendi is closing 2024 strong and reminding fans that even when watching a terrible team, there are still reasons to tune in.

Victor Barbosa

Victor Barbosa is a passionate follower of MLB, the NBA and NFL, with a deep interest in Boston-area teams. He graduated from Springfield College -- The Birthplace of Basketball -- in 2013 with a degree in Communications-Sports Journalism. Previous bylines include FanSided, Heavy and Syracuse

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