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Or do they bring too much of the same qualities?

I say you could never have too much speed. Would love to have both on the team come opening day. Rajai as a 4th OFer and Bonifacio as 2B/OF bench player. Imagine having BOTH of these guys to pinch run late in games?

If we had to keep one I would obviously keep Bonifacio. He can play 2nd, gets on base more, is a switch hitter and five years younger.

PS: Anyone know how Bonifacio's defense is?

Bonifacio is in the majors for his speed and switch hitting. The problem is he strikes out a bit too much and he also has never had a dominant defensive position. He's not great defensively so expect some mistakes similar to Davis and Sierra last year.

Right now he's listed as an outfielder , 3rd baseman and shortstop but it's unlikely he sees much time in the infield at all with us. He's played almost every position in his MLB career except catcher and of course, pitcher. But hey we need someone to replace Mathis' mop up duties, may as well be him.

I think we should keep both of them unless the right deal comes along.

looking at there stats, playing Rajai vs. LHP and Emilio vs. RHP would be a pretty good platoon in LF.

boni has decent avg and good amount of walks, should be considered at the 2 spot along with lawrie...they'll split LF imo with boni getting more games

Bonifacio gets on base more, and when you have legs, that's what you look for. He was a good defender previous to last year, so its a good assumption that the injuries last year had an effect on him, and is a good bet to bounce back. That being said, think he could play a Ben Zobrist type role, filling in at 2B/SS/3B/LF/RF when needed.

Yes, in fact they could make an ideal platoon. If they live up to their split stats of the last few years, combined they'll give you ~.350 OBP, ~.750 OPS, and 60-70 steals. I can live with that in LF.

After this deal, the top four in the batting order can be expected to get on base at least 35% of the time.

Davis/Bonifacio
Reyes
Bautista
Encarnacion

Sign/trade for a big 1B/DH bat and we'll be laughing.

I can't stand Davis, so I'm hoping he is used sparingly. I like Bonifacio at 2B on this squad.

I see Gose getting a fair shake this year to get the starting LF job. You can keep Bonafacio as our IN/OF utility player with Mike Mcoy because you cannot assume no one on the team will get hurt. I think late game situations we have speed that can kill!

We may be one of the fastest teams on the base paths as of right now.

Rajai
Gose
Reyes
Bonafacio

All guys that can steal 40+ bases Gose (Minors) Reyes (Majors) both put up 70+ SB.

This will be fun to watch!

I think Raj and Bon can coexist on a team, but Raj and Gose seem too similar......I imagine the team has Rajai on the trading block. After watching him play, the team can't be high on him and even though he kind of sucks his speed should still bring value to a trade, especially to a team who hasn't had the displeasure of watching him run around like a chicken with his head cut off for a couple seasons.

kavan wrote:I see Gose getting a fair shake this year to get the starting LF job. You can keep Bonafacio as our IN/OF utility player with Mike Mcoy because you cannot assume no one on the team will get hurt. I think late game situations we have speed that can kill!

We may be one of the fastest teams on the base paths as of right now.

Rajai
Gose
Reyes
Bonafacio

All guys that can steal 40+ bases Gose (Minors) Reyes (Majors) both put up 70+ SB.

This will be fun to watch!

I'd prefer not to see any of Rajai, Gose, or Bonifacio get enough plate appearances to accumulate 40 steals. Rajai probably needs to be sent packing along with Arencibia.

They are both bench players. No big deal.

i think rajai is gonna be packaged now.

well if anyone can clearly say who is starting 2nd and backup, that would answer alot of stuff

don't think AA even knows that now

Davis - backup outfielder
Bonfiacio - backup infielder/outfielder
Izturis - starting 2nd baseman

After the backup catcher and the DH bench spots are filled you have 3 spots left Rajai and Boni would be fine to fill 2 of those spots and then ether a young player like Copper, or Linds platoon partner takes the final spot. Ether way you have some flexibility Boni can play all over Rajai can play all 3 OF spots and Lind can fill in at 1B.

Boni goes to 2B.