Report: Emilio Bonifacio of the Kansas City Royals is a possible trade target

There is seemingly always a market for quality speed in Major League Baseball, and there could be a proven option available on the trade market.

Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star, while breaking down the deadline to offer contract tenders to players already in the organization, referenced utility man Emilio Bonifacio as a potential trade target for speed-hungry teams. Dutton said that “Bonifacio draws steady interest from other clubs as a trade target”, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise given his positional flexibility and high-end motor.

However, it isn’t quite clear what kind of player that a prospective team would be getting in Bonifacio. In his career, the 28-year-old has 138 stolen bases in just over 2,000 plate appearances, which illustrates his elite-level speed, but his bat poses a significant problem. Bonifacio has a career slugging percentage of just .340 (yikes), and he’s coming off of the worst season in terms of OBP (.295 in 2013) of his career.

Still, the fact that he can play the outfield and two infield positions (2B and 3B) makes him a perfect candidate in the National League, and even if a team is simply targeting him as a pure utility man, he may be worth the potentially high asking price that Kansas City is seeking.