Atlanta Braves Sign Minor League Free Agent Joe Benson

The Joliet (Il) Herald News is reporting that The Atlanta Braves signed minor league free agent outfielder Joe Benson.

Who is Joe Benson?

Benson graduated from Joliet Catholic High School in 2006 and was the second round pick of the Twins.  A catcher who also played some outfield in high school, Benson was a pretty good football player as well rushing for 2183 yards as a running back in his senior year.  A $575,000 signing bonus convinced him to choose the Twins rather than go to college and play football. His Baseball America pre draft scouting report (subscription required) said he had, “. . . first-round tools across the board and has the best power/speed combination of any Twins farmhand. . .above-average raw power and speed (4.1 seconds to first base from the right side). . .could be a center fielder. . . His ability to make adjustments at the plate will determine whether his raw power becomes usable power. He’s far less polished than Chris Parmelee, but he also has a higher ceiling”

Onward and upward

He had a rough start to 2007, his bat didn’t produce the power some expected but he righted the ship enough to post a .255/.347/.368/.715 line in low A. He struck out at a 28.5% rate; 124 Ks in 432 AB with only 49 walks. But at 19 he still projected well enough to be the Twins #2 prospect following that season. A back injury  from a pre-season automobile accident caused him to make a slow start in 2008 and eventually he was shut down after they found a fractured vertebra.

In  spite of that Scouts still loved his tools, BA reported that, “. . .A healthy Benson has better raw tools than any player in the (Twins) system save Aaron Hicks, with excellent bat speed, raw power and premium strength. . . he has an excellent throwing arm, and he ranked second in the Midwest League in outfield assists (14 in just 69 games) despite his injury. . “ but concluded, “. . . He’s going to need plenty of at-bats to improve his instincts, pitch recognition and hitting skills.. . .” That evaluation dropped him to #15 in the Twins system.

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Somewhere Benson appears to have caught the injury bug. The back injury in 2008 was followed by a wrist injury – caused by punching a wall – that cost him two months of the 2009 season. He played well enough after returning to help Fort Myers get into the playoffs – .285/.414/.403/.817, 5 homers, 80 RBI  in 327PA with 74 strikeouts and 46 walks – then went 4-11 in the playoffs. Scouts said his hitting had improved because he was trusting his “quick hands”  and waiting on the pitch to get deeper before attacking it.  His K rate remained at 28% overall however and his power was still a work in progress. He moved up to the Twins  #13  prior to 2010.

The 2010 season  was a breakout year for Benson as he posted a .259/.343/.538/.881 line with 27 homers, 31 doubles, 8 triples and 62 RBI for Fort Myers and AA New Britain. Scouts saw improvement in arm strength and accuracy  saying that “. . . He has center-field range to go with a right-field arm. . .”  He still had trouble with breaking pitches and that held his hit too ranking down but scouts said, “. . . His other tools all rate as 60s or 70s on the 20-80 scouting scale. . .his speed ranks right behind Ben Revere‘s . . .”

That performance got him added to the Twins 40 man roster and moved him up to their #4 prospect entering 2011.  The 2011 season saw his walk rate improve a bit but his contact rate went down. He got his only major league cup of coffee that year appearing in 21 games and making 74 PA with a .239/.270/.352/.622 line as a September call up. He had already played 114 minor league games and put up a .284/.387/.491/.879 line in AA and was playing more games than he had ever played so the low slash line isn’t all that unusual or worrying. The 20-12 season was however awful.

Maybe a black cat crossed his path?

Benson got off to a slow start then broke a hamate bone in his left hand. Understandably hitting with a sore hand he went into a 1-35 slump. The slump ended with a left knee injury in August that required surgery to have bone chips removed and they found cartilage damage that ended his season. Even though he dropped to the Twins #19 prospect that year scouts still liked him,” . . . he remains one of the system’s best athletes. He has plus speed and raw power, a cannon arm and the defensive chops to play center field. . .”

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In May of 2013 Benson was struggling and the Twins placed him on waivers where he was claimed by the Rangers. He played at AA Frisco and the AZL but never regained his form. The Rangers released him at the end of the season. TYhe Marlins claimed him in January of 2014.

At Jacksonville Benson seemed to have regained his stroke. IN 124 games he posted a .264/.364/.410/.774 line with 10 homers,23 doubles and 4 triples. He also stole 15 bases in 20 attempts so it doesn’t appear the knee surgery slowed him down. One thing the Fish have plenty of is outfield talent and at 26 the decided that Benson wasn’t in their future so they granted him free agency in November.

Minor league depth with big league potential

Joe Benson could be a very nice find. Throughout his career scouts rated his tools highly and he was twice in Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list – yes just barely at #100 in 2011 and #99 in 2012, but that’s not too shabby.

At 26 years old he’s no longer the kind of player that tickles an evaluator’s fancy but that doesn’t mean he’s no good. He’s a good defender with a strong accurate arm who has a history of getting on base at a .350 or so clip.  At 6’ 1”, 215 the RHH Benson seems to be a good fit for the rebuilding Braves weak minor league outfield system and a potential answer to the question we seem to get a lot lately, “Who do we have who can play center field?”

He strikes out more than I’d like and at 26 that will be hard to change. Yet adding a player with 4 of his 5 tools in the 60-80 ranger can’t be a bad thing. The Baseball Cube calculates their player scouting scores a bit differently. Their scores look like this.

By comparison here are the scores for Mallex Smith

and Todd Cunningham.

That’s A Wrap

I like the addition of Benson. It adds depth to a very weak minor league outfield system and provides a guy who can play center or right well. It’s also nice to talk about someone who isn’t recovering from TJ surgery or considering whether to sign or retire. Benson’s young enough to be a real asset and has been through enough to know how hard he must work to make it and show himself willing to do that.

Even at 26 years old he likely slips into the Braves top prospect list somewhere in the teens.  I  hope his bat continues to return to form at Gwinnett or Pearl, the transactions page simply says he’s assigned to the Atlanta Braves – no he’s not on the 4o man roster. . . yet.