2025 Player Outlook

A 39.7 percent strikeout rate last season tanked his batting average below the Mendoza Line (.187), and his xBA (.184) was even worse! Cincinnati will deploy him on the large side of a platoon, but if Benson cannot cut down on the strikeouts, his power/speed combo becomes less appealing for fantasy managers. What’s interesting is that he does a really good job staying in the zone (21.1 O-Swing% in 2024), but he just doesn’t make contact (64.1 Contact%, 16.9 SwStr%). He’ll get to double-digit home runs and stolen bases again in 2025, but projecting anything above a .230 batting average is risky business.