MLB Rumors: Don Mattingly would have resigned as Marlins' manager if Barry Bonds was kept
The Miami Marlins fairly surprisingly cut ties with hitting coach Barry Bonds once the season was over, but now there’s an apparent reason
The day after their 2016 season ended, the Miami Marlins decided to part ways with assistant hitting coach Barry Bonds. A report about his work ethic slipping over the course of the season quickly surfaced, and now there’s another big layer to the story regarding manager Don Mattingly.
Mattingly clearly had an issue with Bonds, and as early as April he praised fellow Marlins’ assistant hitting coach Frank Menechino for his work.
Via the San Francisco Chronicle:
(Bonds is a) work in progress from a standpoint of the amount of time and preparation. You see Frankie still doing a lot of the prep work. Barry is still getting into the routine of the ugly side of coaching: being here at 1 and studying video, studying on the plane and you don’t get a chance to watch movies, things like that.
“It just depends how good you want to be as a coach. If you want to be a really good coach, you’ve got to do the work.”
Mattingly’s last point is the most damning in regards to Bonds, and suggests an odd dynamic of having two hitting coaches in the first place. Bonds may have struggled to find where he could fit in and offer input, and thus a work ethic never materialized as a possible show of frustration.
Marlins’ owner Jeffrey Loria likes publicity, and hiring Bonds brought some. Bonds surely has insight he can pass along to current hitters, but if he struggled to find a way to communicate it effectively and consistently he would not be the first past star to not cut it as a coach.
Bonds’ job prospects as a hitting coach have taken a hit with the news coming out of the Miami situation. He won’t get a similar gig anytime soon, but there could be fit for him as a coach somewhere in a different role.
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