The Miami Marlins have signed MLB legend Barry Bonds to become one of the clubs hitting coaches. The Marlins already have Frank Menechino with the club as a hitting coach, but they plan on them working together.
According to Peter Gammons, the Marlins new manager Don Mattingly and Menechino are on board with the idea. Bonds does not need any introduction.
Bonds is baseball's all-time home run king with 762 home runs in his astonishing 22-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Francisco Giants. He also has played 2,986 games, 9,847 at bats, 1,996 RBI's, MLB record 2,558 base on balls, another MLB record 688 intentional base on balls, and a .298 batting average. He made $188,245,322 over his career, which is fourth most ever in MLB history only behind Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez.
His career was also marked with controversy, as he has been tied to performance-enhancing drugs for years. PEDs aside, nobody can deny he is one of the greatest hitters ever. He executed the mechanics of baseball better than almost anyone in the league history. His approach at the plate and the way his hands move through the zone, these are things that couldn't be enhanced by drugs. And these things would make Bonds a fantastic coach if he's able to pass these ideas on to the likes of Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Dee Gordon and the rest of the Marlins organization.
The Marlins, who finished in third in the NL East this year, are trying to rebuild after all the big injuries they endured. After Giancarlo Stanton got injured on June 26th, the team fell into a downward spiral. The Marlins, with Mattingly as the manager and Bonds as a hitting coach, should be able to make a run for the playoffs come the 2016 season.