Red Sox promote 2015 1st-round draft pick Andrew Benintendi

Andrew Benintendi was already SEC Player of the Year as well as Baseball America's 2015 College Player of the Year, but he's managed to pick up one more notable accolade before the summer ends: the Red Sox' first-round pick of the 2015 draft has been promoted to Low-A Greenville from short-season Lowell, giving him the rare distinction in this system of a player who gets the bump that fast.

Benintendi certainly deserved the promotion, as he was batting .290/.408/.540 while leading the New York-Penn League in OPS. It might not mean a whole lot other than being recognition of his quality performance, however: at this time of year, with just 21 games left, the Sally League isn't exactly brimming with the best of the best -- those guys got promoted, too, just like Benintendi. With that being said, he might tear through Low-A in these 21 games, and the admittedly advanced 21-year-old could convince the Red Sox that yeah, he should be on that short list of college players they bump to High-A for their first real test of full-season ball.

For now, let Benintendi settle in to a lineup that has plenty of Boston's other top prospects, such as Yoan Moncada, Rafael Devers, and Javier Guerra. Mostly, it just feels good to see a draft pick land in the pros and immediately make an impact. Benintendi's first test was the switch from aluminum bats to wooden ones, and he passed that quickly. The next test will be the full-season structure, and while we'll have to wait until next year to see how that goes, at least he's getting a head start of sorts.