Breaking down the Yankees' best lineup after adding Andrew Benintendi

Andrew Benintendi will switch dugouts at Yankee Stadium Thursday night, as his Kansas City Royals, the Yankees' next opponent on the schedule, traded him on Wednesday night. 

It was a necessary addition for the Yanks, who were looking for another bat and one who particularly played in the outfield. Benintendi's high-contact rate and on-base percentage is a perfect fit among the big boppers in the lineup. 

Where should he fit in it? The Yankees have the good problem of lots of good players and not enough space in the field each night. So there will be different lineups Aaron Boone deploys over the second half. But for this exercise, we'll focus on the best lineup with Benintendi in play now. 

Let's take a look: 

1) Andrew Benintendi, CF
2) Aaron Judge, RF
3) Anthony Rizzo, 1B
4) Giancarlo Stanton, DH (after return from IL)
5) DJ LeMahieu, 3B
6) Gleyber Torres, 2B
7) Matt Carpenter, LF
8) Isiah Kiner-Falefa, SS
9) Jose Trevino, C

A few things to point out here, first starting with Benintendi's spot. He should be the primary leadoff hitter of this group over LeMahieu because the former's on-base percentage is a hair better (.387 to .386) and his average is almost 40 points higher. 

So moving LeMahieu down to fifth, in a prime position in the heart of the lineup, might not make sense until you look at his numbers there this season. He has hit fifth in 13 games so far this year and has gone 17-for-48 with six RBI and three homers. Having his contact bat in that spot could help generate more runs with Judge, Rizzo and Stanton ahead of him to get extra-base hits. 

Moving one spot down from LeMahieu, there is an argument to have Carpenter hitting sixth and allowing Torres to hit seventh, a spot he's been comfortable with in the past. That could easily happen with both players being interchangeable depending on the matchup. 

But in Carpenter's case, he's taking the spot over Aaron Hicks and Josh Donaldson with Kiner-Falefa having to play shortstop and Trevino catching. This will likely be a platoon for Boone, but matchups aside, he should be giving it to the hot hand more often than not. Right now, that's obviously Carpenter.

It will be interesting, though, to see if Carpenter plays left field instead of right field, which is where he's been deployed as the Yankees are testing his skills out there. Right field at Yankee Stadium is easier to play than left field, but Benintendi coming over allows Judge to get back to right field again.

Maybe Judge does stay in center a bit, Benintendi pushes to left field and Carpenter can stay in right field.

Overall, this is what I would expect in a Game 1 of a postseason series from the Yankees at this point in the season. Of course, injuries, slumps, and other things can change it up, but this group is a good balance of contact and power.