CINCINNATI (WXIX) – ST. LOUIS — If he wanted to, Cincinnati Reds outfielder Will Benson could frame his resurgent September as a revenge tour.
He has consistently hit the ball hard all year, but he has always been fighting for playing time. After the Reds acquired two position players at the trade deadline, Benson was optioned to Triple-A at the start of August. Benson returned to the big league roster in the middle of the month, but he still didn’t even get a shot to start for a Reds’ team with a scuffling offense until last Tuesday.
He wound up going about six weeks between starts. When Benson got the chance to be in the lineup again, he delivered some season-saving hits, including three homers and the go-ahead sac fly on Monday.
Benson didn’t get too low when he was surprisingly optioned to Triple-A last month. He’s not getting too high now that he’s back in the middle of the Reds’ lineup on a regular basis.
“I’m more leaning towards a neutral steady line,” Benson said. “It’s just that now I’m getting the opportunity to play.”
There are a few different ways to evaluate Benson’s 2025 season. On one hand, he had a subpar .682 OPS up until this recent hot stretch, which started on Sept. 9 when he got his shot back in the lineup. During that stretch, he struck out on over 30% of his at-bats and wasn’t one of the team’s more consistent situational hitters.
On the other hand, he led the team in xWOBA, which measures how consistently hard hitters hit the ball. The underlying metrics, if that’s what you want to go off of, painted an encouraging picture of his season.
You could look at his season and make the case that he should be in the middle of the lineup every day vs. RHP, or you could make just as logical of a case that sending him to Triple-A was the right move. The Reds determined the latter at the end of July.
Getting optioned caught Benson by surprise.
“It was tough,” Benson said. “More so outer realm things. It was my daughter’s birthday time. We had things planned around that. That was a little bit harder to deal with. Getting past it was a refreshing feeling to finally just refocus on the game and the opportunities that I did have.”
He said that it really helped that he had a lot of good relationships with the guys in Triple-A. Benson made a point to not be too hard on himself even though he was in the Minor Leagues, and he said that he leaned on his faith.
Benson also got to play every day again.
“Being where my feet were in Triple-A was my biggest thing,” Benson said. “I really like the guys down there. To be able to experience that with some of those guys and know that I was going to play, it gave me an opportunity to work on my craft without having to worry about am I sitting or playing.”
He didn’t make any big adjustment, and Benson just got into a rhythm again. Then in the middle of August, when the Reds DFAd Jake Fraley, Benson got called back up to the big leagues to fill a bench role. He was the team’s left-handed pinch-hitter. Even though the lineup desperately needed some punch, Benson didn’t make a start until Noelvi Marte needed a day off last Tuesday.
Benson has made the most of this opportunity.
“We’re trying to find spots for him to play because when he’s hot, he can be really dangerous,” Terry Francona said. “As a manager, you never want to be the cooler. The game is hard enough. We try to pick what we think are the right spots for guys. Especially the bench guys. But they’ve got to hit. He has done a good job.”
Francona said that Benson is at his best when he’s laying off of or fouling off the high pitch and making pitchers challenge him with something lower in the zone. Benson did that when he was hot in May, and he’s executing that approach again now.
With Benson swinging the bat well, Francona is riding the hot hand.
“I was hoping this moment would come,” Benson said. “It’s a blessing. You stay patient. When you’re blessed with an opportunity, you give it everything you have.”
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