Emilio Bonifacio Out 4-6 Weeks With Thumb Surgery

According to Joe Frisaro of MLB.com, Emilio Bonifacio appears to be out another four to six weeks with his thumb injury. Apparently, he will be going under the knife on Friday. If you will recall, Bonifacio hurt the thumb on a slide during a basestealing attempt against the Cleveland Indians in the first game of their weekend series last week.

The Marlins have been running with Bryan Petersen in center field, but recently the team had to promote Chris Coghlan to add outfield depth, and now the club will be without contributor Austin Kearns as he is now on the disabled list with his hamstring problems. With the series of outfielder injuries in quick succession, the Marlins are suddenly running thin on outfield options.

What are the Marlins going to do now that a number of their outfielders have hit the disabled list? Right now, the Marlins are currently running Petersen in center field and Coghlan in left field out of a seeming necessity. When Gaby Sanchez is next eligible to return to the majors following a minimal ten-day stint in Triple-A, the team could return him to the lineup at first base and move Logan Morrison back to left field, relying on either Coghlan or Petersen in center field. Neither has played like a good option thus far, as Petersen is hitting just .179/.258/.250 while Coghlan is hitting an even more atrocious .116/.156/.140. The better option between the two is undoubtedly Petersen, just on the basis that his defensive performance would likely be better.

No matter what the Marlins do, their injury situation has thinned their team's depth. Kevin Mattison is not a significant player coming from Triple-A, and the Marlins are already stretched in starting the sub-optimal Coghlan anywhere at this point. The injury also likely forces the Marlins' hand in returning Sanchez sooner, which is not ideal given that they wanted to afford him as much time as possible to recover from his season-long slump. The back-to-back injuries to outfielders are now stretching the club's limited resources in the outfield.