Kansas City Royals 2018: Jorge Bonifacio vs Jorge Soler in right field

The Kansas City Royals will have a decision to make this Spring Training – who should start in right field between Jorge Bonifacio and Jorge Soler.

Which Jorge will get this most time in right field for the 2018 Kansas City Royals? How do the Royals choose between two players that seem to share a very similar skill set?

Jorge Bonifacio is 24 years old and is a homegrown product. In eight minor league seasons, he slashed .268/.336/.420/.756 with 65 home runs and 392 RBI in 3,079 plate appearances.

Jorge Soler started out in the Cubs organization and came to the Royals last summer in the Wade Davis trade that may have cost Kansas City a playoff spot. In Soler’s six minor league seasons, he produced a slash of .286/.382/.533/.915 with 52 round trippers and 179 RBI in 1,013 plate appearances.

While Soler’s numbers in the minors were more eye-catching, Bonifacio has better-looking stats at the Major League level, in more limited play.

Last season was Bonifacio’s first in the majors, and he earned 422 plate appearances. He slashed .255/.320/.432/.752. with 17 homers and 40 RBI. He also had 118 strikeouts. Those numbers are close to his stats in the minors and might be what the Royals can expect in the future.

Soler is nearly 26 years old and has more than twice the plate appearances (486), spread out over parts of four seasons. His slash is .244/.318/.412/.730 with 29 home runs, 104 RBI, and 247 strikeouts – much worse than the line he produced in the minors.

If you spread the stats for each player out to a 162-game average, they are nearly identical. So how do the Royals decide? Let’s dig a little deeper!

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Bonifacio throughout his MLB career is a bit more of a line drive hitter (25.8 percent) than Soler (21.5 percent) and hits fewer ground balls (39.3 percent to 42.2 percent). Advantage – Bonifacio!

Soler walks a bit more (11.0 percent to 8.3 percent), but their strikeout rates are almost identical (28.2 percent to 28.0 percent). The advantage here is slightly in Soler’s favor.

The former Cub hits more flyballs (36.3 percent to 34.8 percent), but his flyballs leave the park less often (14.8 percent to 18.3 percent. This is pretty much a wash.

If you are looking for one of them to be far superior to the other defensively, you are going to be disappointed. In Ultimate Zone Rating, according to Fangraphs, Bonifacio earned .3 last year, which isn’t very good at all, but Soler has never recorded a positive rating.

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In Defensive Runs Saved, Bonifacio had a minus three last year but Soler’s was minus four, and he is minus 16 for his career. Neither is stellar in the field.

All of this data points to one thing – these two players are very similar so far in their careers. In all honesty, Bonifacio’s rookie season may have been somewhat of a surprise and Soler’s first year with the Royals was an utter disaster.

As far as the Royals are concerned, the sample size for each player as a member of the Kansas City Royals is probably still too small.

You can’t even platoon them as both are right-handed and the Royals are going to be extremely right-handed as a team in 2018 unless something drastic happens with the roster between now and the start of the season.

Let’s say for a moment the Royals do not sign either Eric Hosmer or Mike Moustakas, Brandon Moss probably starts at first and will be one of two left-handed bats in the line-up (Alex Gordon the other). Either Bonifacio or Soler could start in right, and the other at designated hitter. That way both get to play.

There is also Hunter Dozier to consider. He could earn a spot as the first baseman or a DH, but he also is a righty. If the Royals are in full rebuild mode, and they are, they have to give a player like Dozier a chance to prove himself.

The Royals could play Gordon in center (instead of the right-handed Paulo Orlando) and let Bonifacio and Soler flank him, but Gordon is aging and has never played center at the major league level.

The possibility of an outfield of Soler, Bonifacio, and Gordon cannot be thrilling to any Royals’ pitchers. It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

It is as simple as this – whichever player has the hottest spring will probably get the nod to start in right field. Depending on how good or bad the other is, will determine if that player is a back up in the majors or is sent to the minors to get on track.

At this point, there it would be hard to predict what will happen.

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The Kansas City Royals are hoping either Jorge Bonifacio or Jorge Soler step up and become a viable Major League player this season. It will be incredible if both prove themselves worthy enough to play every day. At this point, the Royals are going to need both!

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