Emilio Bonifacio

Emilio Jose Bonifacio Del Rosario (born April 23, 1985) is a Dominican professional baseball 3rd baseman with the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball in the United States. He played in his first Major League game on September 1, 2007 when he was called up by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He is from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Major League career

On July 22, 2008, he was traded from the Diamondbacks to the Washington Nationals for pitcher Jon Rauch and was optioned to Triple-A Columbus.

Bonifacio was called up to the majors (he played for the South Bend Silver Hawks before he entered the majors. the Nationals on August 1, along with fellow middle infielder Alberto Gonzalez. Bonifacio went 1 for 4, with an RBI, run, and a stolen base.

On November 11, 2008 he was traded to the Florida Marlins for left fielder Josh Willingham and pitcher Scott Olsen.^[1] On March 31, 2009 the Marlins announced that he would be their starting third baseman for the season.^[2] Bonifacio hit his first home run on April 6, 2009, an inside the park home run on opening day against the Washington Nationals. This home run marked the first time in forty-one years that an inside the park home run was hit on Opening Day; the last being hit in 1968 by Carl Yastrzemski.

In 2009 he had the lowest OPS of any starter in the major leagues, at .611.^[3]

The Marlins decided to option Bonifacio to the minors in 2010 after Spring Training.

On May 1, 2011, he hit his first outside the park home run, in a game against the Cincinnati Reds. In addition, his 2011 start has already been much more memorable than those in previous seasons.

Bonifacio is currently the starting 3rd basemen for the Florida Marlins, had a 26 game hitting streak at a hit in 30 of 31 games. Bonifacio won Player of the Month for the National League in July 2011.

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)