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Blue Jays prospect Enmanuel Bonilla's pro career has started off with immense promise

Michael Fisher
Michael Fisher

Jays Journal

Toronto Blue Jays logo / Roberto Machado Noa/GettyImages

Far away from the daily hand-wringing around the state of the current Toronto Blue Jays team, a hopeful future Blue Jays superstar is working on his game. The future, in this case, is still at least half a decade away.

Prospect Enmanuel Bonilla, still just 17 years old, will find himself in the spotlight for years to come as he works his way through the team's farm system. He almost guaranteed that fate when he signed his $4.1 million deal — the Blue Jays' biggest international free agency deal. Yes, even bigger than Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s $3.9 million deal.

In his first year in Toronto's development system, Bonilla is doing a lot of developing but has started his Blue Jays career on a promising note while playing in the Dominican Summer League. The Jays' No. 17 prospect coming into the season, as ranked by MLB Pipeline, has a .275 batting average over his first 36 pro games, with a .374 OBP and .377 SLG.

His numbers definitely got a boost from an otherworldly 5-for-6 day at the plate last week.

Currently playing center field, Bonilla's scouting report projects him as a "corner-outfield thumper." He has the raw power and bat speed to have the huge upside of a slugger but has yet to see that power translate into home runs during game action. He has one long ball and a .110 ISO.

The young Dominican has five doubles and three triples, so he's still putting the ball in play, working around a 27 percent strikeout rate. He has scored 29 runs, driven in 11 and contributed four stolen bases.

At such a young age, Bonilla is still years away from the majors but has the physical tools and athleticism to warrant some excitement in the early days of his pro career.

Michael Fisher

Michael Fisher

Michael Fisher is the editor at That Ball's Outta Here on the FanSided network, a position he has held since September 2023. He has written over 500 articles for That Ball’s Outta Here. He has been a baseball fan since 1990 and became a Philadelphia Phillies fan in the early 2000s. Michael has been writing for FanSided since 2022 when he started as a writer at Jays Journal. He also spent over a year writing about MLB at FanSided.com. Michael enjoys camping and playing tennis and badminton in his free time.