Royals Jorge Bonifacio on a power surge: Waiver wire add?
By Brad Kelly
Jorge Bonifacio has homered in three consecutive games for the resurgent Royals. Is the slugger now worth a waiver wire add?
The Royals are in playing their best baseball of the season and have rebounded to be smack dab in the middle of the WIld Card chase. They already showed baseball that they will be buyers at the deadline, but they also are getting key contributions from some not so household names.
Enter in: Jorge Bonifacio.
The 23-year-old Dominican outfielder hit his way to the big leagues, and the raw power seems as advertised. In only 76 games with the Royals this season, he holds a .259/14 HR/31 RBI/.795 OPS line.
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After the Royals moved on from the other Jorge experiment in right, Bonifacio has cemented himself as a key fixture in their lineup, even ascending to batting second in the order.
He should be on fantasy owners radar especially after the power display he is on over the last week. If homering in three straight games was not enough, he has amassed 14 hits over the two weeks while driving in four runs.
The Royals are grooving right now, and Bonifacio is a key part of it. The counting stats are there, and even if the AVG hovers around .260, the combined stats are well worth the investment.
He has his flaws, he strikes out at a 26% rate and he will not swipe any bases. But, he is averaging 405 ft. per homer, and with Whit Merrifield playing like he is in front of him in the order, and Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez behind him, the intrigue is there.
Next: Royals get Trevor Cahill and Brandon Mauer
It was not too long that people thought that Bonifacio was bound to head back to minors as the league adjusted to him. Yet, here he still is and mashing. Not too bad for a guy owned in less than 5% of leagues.