Luis Robert Jr. Not The Only Outfielder The White Sox Are Looking to Trade

The Chicago White Sox are stripping it down to the studs in their rebuild after an all-time bad 2024 season in which they lost 121 games.

The biggest name still on the trade block is in their outfield, and Luis Robert Jr. has been on the rumor mill for about a year now. But there's another outfielder that the White Sox are looking to trade—no, make that, would love to dump.

Andrew Benintendi still has three more years left on the ill-advised five-year, $75 million deal the ChiSox gave him in free agency in 2023. They tried to unload his contract in a package while discussing trades this winter for top starting pitcher Garrett Crochet. But that, of course, significantly lowered their potential return in order to get teams to take the Benintendi contract, so they bailed on that idea.

The 30-year-old former Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals outfielder has been dreadful in his two seasons in the Windy City, posting a combined .246 average (.229 last year), far below his career .280 mark when he arrived. His .684 OPS with Chicago is about 100 points below his previous career mark.

He did launch 20 home runs in 2024, but that came with an ugly .229 average and .289 on-base percentage. He even had a negative WAR, at -0.8.

Benintendi had some decent years earlier in his career, including his rookie season in 2017 in Boston, when he drove in 90 runs and finished 2nd in Rookie of the Year balloting. The following season, he posted a career-high OPS of .830.

More recently, he had two nice years in Kansas City, with a combined .294 average and a 114 OPS+. Unfortunately, the $17M annual salary he's earning will stick with him as an overpay. His trade value is extremely low, and really, all the White Sox would want is for somebody to take the contract off their hands.