Beniquez Paints Another Masterpiece : Angels’ Only .300 Hitter Wants Raise to Go Along With Praise

“Juan Beniquez is the type of hitter who’s beautiful to watch. It’s almost like the field is his canvas and his bat is a brush.” --Angel Manager Gene Mauch, June 22, 1985

Juan Beniquez doesn’t mind being compared to an artist, but he is hoping he won’t have to be dead before his work is appreciated.

Sometimes he wonders if anyone would miss him if he was gone.

Last year, he changed the name over his locker to “Juan Who.” He finished the season with a .336 batting average, but nobody seemed to notice. The Angel front office was trying to lure him to sign a contract extension, that’s for sure.

Beniquez doesn’t expect to be engulfed in a swarm of media every time he walks into the clubhouse and he’s not asking for a multi-year deal that will make Johnny Carson jealous. He just wants to be compensated on a par with his peers and get a little job security.

He may finally get it next year when he becomes eligible to file for the free agent draft. Mauch is hoping the Angels will re-sign his only .300 hitter, but, with or without knowing it, he’s making Beniquez’s resume look pretty darn good.

Mauch wasn’t done marveling at the 35-year-old utility player that June day in Chicago when he all but suggested Beniquez’s bat be hung in Louvre. He took a giant step further, in fact.

“I think he’s been the best hitter in baseball the last three years,” the Angel manager said. “And I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t mean it sincerely.”

Now, Beniquez would like a raise to go with all the praise. He’s making $365,000 for this year, just a million or so less than the other “best” hitters in baseball.

He’s currently making a salary drive that should make believers out of those who question Mauch’s judgment, however. In the last 13 games, he’s hitting an .500 (19 for 38) and Wednesday night he singled and clubbed a three-run homer to help propel the Angels to a 7-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox in their regular-season farewell performance at Anaheim Stadium.

“You cannot overstate his contributions,” Mauch said Wednesday night. “He’s not known as a power hitter, but he lays this little trap for pitchers. They think he’s going to right field, so they come inside, he’s waiting and he takes them deep.

“But he sets it all up because he’s such an accomplished hitter.”

Beniquez is not going to give Carlton Fisk (who hit No. 37 Wednesday night) a scare in a home run derby, but he has eight home runs and 42 RBIs to go with a .310 batting average. He also has 120 hits (second on the team to Brian Downing’s 132), despite the fact nine other Angels have more at-bats.

And that brings up another point Beniquez doesn’t quite understand.

“I hit .336 and I come to spring training fighting for a job,” he said this spring. “What do I have to do?”

Well, maybe he shouldn’t be so versatile. He’s played every position except pitcher, catcher and second base this year, but he can’t find a regular spot in the lineup.

Don’t get the idea that Beniquez is so unhappy he wants to pick up his brushes and start painting on someone else’s canvas, though.

“They told me we will talk after the World Series,” Beniquez said in response to a question about his contract negotiations. “I want to stay here. I want to finish my career here because they gave me the opportunity to prove what kind of player I am after I got a bad reputation in Seattle.”

For a while, Beniquez must have been wondering if a bad reputation was any worse than no reputation at all, but he’s beginning to feel slightly wanted these days.

“I’m more happy with my role now than last year,” he said. “I feel good. We are in a good position to win the pennant and I think I’m getting to play pretty much.

“For the last couple of years, I do my job and no one writes about me. This year, more press come to talk to me after the game.”

The best-kept secret in the American League West may be less a secret these days and Beniquez is content to let his bat do the majority of his talking for him.

And, while the Angels front office is smiling now, watch for a change in mood this winter when Beniquez’s agent starts doing the talking for him.