After much speculation, Barry Bonds is officially back in Major League Baseball as a hitting coach of the Miami Marlins.
The Marlins announced their 2016 coaching staff Friday under manager Don Mattingly on Twitter, which includes Bonds as one of the team's hitting coaches.
This is Bonds' first job as an MLB coach since his playing days ended following the 2007 season. The seven-time National League MVP did serve as a roving instructor with the San Francisco Giants during spring training in 2014.
Bonds' former San Francisco teammate, Rich Aurilia, recently told Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News about some of the work Bonds did with Giants hitters two years ago.
“The players were almost apprehensive to ask him anything because of the magnitude of who he was,” Aurilia said. “But I remember (Brandon) Crawford asked him for help, and he worked with Craw on hitting left-handers, explained that process to him. They went out into the cages and back fields to work on stuff."
In the same report, Baggarly noted Bonds never asked to become a full-time coach with the Giants. Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton is fully on board with the hiring, telling TMZ Sports (via Larry Brown of LarryBrownSports.com) Bonds was brilliant at what he did.
“It’s all about the bottom line. Controversies aside, the man was a genius,” Stanton said. “For that knowledge to watch us play every day and give us back that knowledge is what we need.”
The Marlins can certainly use Bonds' hitting expertise after finishing 26th in OPS and 29th in runs scored last year. He will also, for better or worse, bring a lot of media attention because of his profile.
The 51-year-old never had a harmonious relationship with the press during his playing days, but Bonds is one of the sports' towering figures. The Marlins are a franchise in desperate need of both goodwill from fans and media interest.
Bonds may not provide all the answers to solve Miami's hitting woes, but he's a great baseball mind who will be working with talent like Stanton, Christian Yelich and, if he's not traded, Dee Gordon. Based on how the Marlins' bats performed last year, there is nowhere for them to go but up.
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