Despite 2020 struggles, the Red Sox shouldn’t move on from Andrew Benintendi

There is undeniable merit in the argument for trading Andrew Benintendi.

The 26-year-old outfielder followed up a mediocre 2019 season (13 homers, .770 OPS, and a spike in strikeouts to 140) with possibly the worst abbreviated season I’ve ever seen a good player have. He hit .103 with a .128 slugging percentage in 14 games before a rib injury knocked him out for the remainder of the 50-game schedule. In November, colleague Alex Speier detailed Benintendi’s troubling decline in both bat speed and running speed, and it’s fair to wonder whether those skills can be recovered after the crash.

When he rocketed to the Red Sox in 2016, a year after he was drafted with the No. 7 overall pick, I…