Report: Barry Bonds could be the Marlins’ next hitting coach
The always-unpredictable Miami Marlins could be cooking up a move that would make their 2016 season a lot more interesting. The team is reportedly considering the ever-controversial Barry Bonds for a hitting-coach position.
Bonds, of course, is baseball’s all-time home-run leader and one of the best technical hitters the game has ever seen. He also has a big ol’ PED asterisk next to his name.
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Anything having to do with Bonds — from his Hall of Fame candidacy to his Instagram account — is sure to get baseball fans of a certain mindset riled up. Jon Heyman from CBS Sports has the scoop on the Marlins’ interest in Bonds:
Team higherups have quietly been discussing this possibility for weeks.
Bonds, known as a brilliant tactician, has worked as a special spring instructor for the Giants on occasion. It isn’t known whether he’s willing to move across the country for such a hitting coach job, but he has been working on brandishing his image and has a keen love of coaching.
Frank Menechino is the Marlins’ current hitting coach and has been since the end of the 2013 season. If the Marlins added Bonds, Heyman writes, it would be as a second hitting coach, not to replace Menechino on new manager Don Mattingly’s staff.
Even by Marlins standards — and remember they’re a team that made their GM their manager last season — hiring Bonds seems to raise some red flags. First off, the Marlins are prone to dysfunction and adding Bonds to could be a recipe for outrage, disaster or maybe both.
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The Marlins have the game’s top slugger in Giancarlo Stanton and the idea of him learning from Bonds is certainly appealing. But what about the other side of that coin? If Stanton stays healthy and hits 60 homers next season — something that’s not impossible with or without Bonds’ help — some fans will automatically be skeptical since Bonds is around.
This isn’t to say Bonds couldn’t be a valuable coach. He seems to have helped the players he’s worked with in limited coaching roles thus far. But you have to admit he brings a certain baggage with him, anywhere he goes. And Miami, for all the things already strange about the Marlins, might not be the best place for that baggage to take up permanent residency.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
