I don’t think the Marlins Organization is really grasping how bad a season Emilio Bonifacio is having.  His last two games have been terrible (0-9), but he has been seriously struggling all season.  He currently has an on-base plus slugging (OPS), a critical statistic that measures overall offensive performance, of .600, which is beyond abysmal.  Here is how bad it is…

In all of major league baseball since 2000, nine full seasons, there have only been nine instances of a player registering enough plate appearances to qualify for the leader boards (3.1 plate appearances per team game played) and finishing with an OPS of .600 or below.  In all of MLB, this happens only once per season on average, so Bonifacio is in very rare company.

There are three factors that make playing Bonifacio so much this year particularly egregious:

1.     We are in play-off contention.  Playoff teams don’t allow players to struggle this much and keep playing them.  Of the nine teams that allowed a player to register enough plate appearances to qualify for the leader boards and finish with an OPS of .600 or below, none of those teams ever made the playoffs.  In fact those teams averaged 20 games below .500 in those seasons.  So why are the Marlins, who are just 3 games out of the wildcard lead, letting a player struggle so tremendously?  Only the worst teams would ever allow that to happen.  This is not fair to the fans.

2.     Despite his struggles, Bonifacio is still hitting at the top of the order.  Of the nine players since 2000 that registering enough plate appearances to qualify for the leader boards and finishing with an OPS of .600 or below, most barely cleared the minimum threshold for plate appearances (usually 503), and the very most plate appearances that was registered of the nine was 593.  Bonifacio is on pace to register 696 plate appearances this year, 4th most in the NL.  No team in the last decade has allowed a player to struggle so much and continued to hit them at the top of the order.  So why are the Marlins treating Bonifacio like he’s Ricky Henderson?  If the Marlins are not going to sit Bonifacio, they need to at least move him to the bottom of the order.  The fact that Bonifacio is 4th in the National League in plate appearances is inexcusable.  This is not fair to the fans.

3.     Bonifacio is terrible defensively too.  Of the nine players since 2000 that registering enough plate appearances to qualify for the leader boards and finishing with an OPS of .600 or below, the majority were above average or great defensive players at critical defensive positions (SS or C).  Bonifacio is not playing one of these two positions and he leads the MLB in errors.  If he’s not contributing offensively, and he’s not contributing defensively, where exactly is he contributing?  This is not fair to the fans.

I honestly do not blame Bonifacio for his own struggles.  I blame those that are asking him to go out there night after night when we have seen what his production level is.  In the last decade, struggles of this magnitude are statistically unprecedented.  The good news is, it’s not too late for this season.  We are still in the playoff picture with 60 games to go, and we have some other attractive options.  For God’s sake, help the Marlin fans out a little bit and get Bonifacio out of the lineup.  If history is any indicator, we cannot make the playoffs with Bonifacio playing.

Now that the season is half over (a little more actually), now is a good time to reevaluate and see what the Marlins need to do to improve the team and give them the best chance to make the playoffs. 

Of all the things they can do, the most obvious, and least costly, would be to promote Gaby Sanchez from Triple-A, and play him.  I think this move alone will greatly improve the production of the Marlins lineup in the second half, and would lead to two or three more wins for The Fish down the stretch.

Bonifacio, for all his intangible assets, is not getting it done at the plate or in the field.  He is hitting a mediocre .258, but when you consider how terrible his other offensive statistics are, his average is misleadingly good.  The problem is Bonifacio has no power (82 percent of his hits are singles), he seldom walks (which leads to an on-base percentage of just .304), and he strikes out way too much.  Bonifacio has 73 Ks on the season, which is ridiculous for a leadoff hitter, especially for one with no power.  Bonifacio has the 15th most strikeouts in the National League, but he has none of the other assets a team should get in exchange for those Ks, like HRs, RBIs, or a high average. 

Let’s look at the 14 players in the National League with more Ks than Bonifacio to demonstrate my point.  These 14 players average 14 more HRs and 30 more RBIs than Bonifacio.  They have an average OPS of 0.849, while Bonifacio’s is just 0.624, a 0.221 difference.  The other teams in MLB understand that if a player is going to strike out as much as Bonifacio does, you better get some real power numbers to go with it.  Bonifacio just does not have that capability.  All of this might be overlooked if he had truly stellar defense, but Bonifacio is leading the Major Leagues in errors with 13 on the season.  I hate to say it, but Bonifacio is killing us.

Gaby Sanchez, on the other hand, is a huge prospect that has been an amazing hitter at every level of minor league ball.  He even hit .375 in limited action in the Big Leagues last September.  Sanchez was MVP of the Double-A Southern League last year (.314/17 HR/92 RBI/.917 OPS in 478 ABs), and has put up comparable numbers in Triple-A this year (.297/8 HR/35 RBI/.815 OPS in just 212 ABs), although he was sidelined for a month with a knee injury.  He also plays solid defense, winning the Southern League award for best defensive first baseman last year. 

Now that Sanchez has established his health, I don’t see how he still has not been given a chance to help the Marlins given Bonifacio’s lack of production.  I am delighted to see that the Marlins are in contention, but I am getting mad that they have not made a switch at 3B when the numbers show quite painfully that something needs to be done.  The Marlins are going to need every win they can get.  Sanchez is Major League hitter and a very good option at 3B.  Pull the trigger already! 

I think Gaby Sanchez is the best option the Marlins have at 1B this year.  Granted, he has had a slow start in 2009, but let’s not forget that Gaby has been outstanding at every minor league level and had an incredible year last year, winning the Double-A Southern League MVP.  Who cares if he’s hitting in the low .200s over 32 Spring at-bats?  Throw out his 0-for-9 start and he’s hitting .304, a level of production the Marlins can expect to continue based on his three-year track record.  Are the Marlins really going to send one of the best young hitters in baseball to triple-A because of a small slump he had a month ago?  That makes no sense at all. 

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