Pittsburgh Pirates: All-Time Award Winning Team

Third Base – Bobby Bonilla

Bobby Bonilla was part of the late-80’s to early-90’s Pittsburgh Pirates. The slugger played a good portion of his career at third base, which landed him a spot here. Throughout his 6 year tenure with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bonilla took home three Silver Sluggers.

Bonilla appeared in a total of 843 games with the Pittsburgh Pirates, stepping to the plate 3485 times. His final line consisted of a strong .284/.357/.481 line, .365 wOBA, and 132 wRC+. Bonilla 114 home runs, which makes him just one of 4 Pirates’ third basemen to have 100 or more home runs. Bonilla’s 20.6 fWAR also ranks 5th among Pirates’ third basemen.

Bonilla wasn’t much of a defender. He had -4.1 dWAR as a third baseman and right fielder for the Bucs. But he was consistently a good hitter. Bonilla’s three Silver Sluggers came in 1988, and 1990-1991. Bonilla finished 2nd and 3rd in MVP voting in ‘90-’91 and his lowest wRC+ in each of those 3 Silver Slugger seasons was still a healthy 127 mark.

The first thing you think of when you hear Bobby Bonilla’s name probably isn’t the silver sluggers. But all three of them were well deserved. He was consistently a strong hitter, year-in-year-out with the Pirates.