There has been a lot of talk lately about the Rays being a possible landing spot for the unemployed Barry Bonds. You may know Bonds’ name for being the single season home run record holder and the career home run leader. Bonds who has played for only Pittsburgh and San Francisco in his career is currently a free agent.
Bonds, 43, would clearly make just about any team better. He still hits for power, gets on base at a other worldly rate and would be a terrific hitting influence on the young Rays hitters. The main concern with Bonds is all of his baggage. There is all of the steroid talk and his problems with the law. He faces a long year of court hearings and constant speculation that he might be a cheater. There are also questions about his health. Bonds has bad knees and they are not getting healthier with age. If he were to join the Rays he would almost always DH.
According to baseball-reference.com, Bonds made a shade over $15 million last year and has made right around $188 million for his career. That could be the one hold up in his unemployment. If he’s not willing to play for $3-5 million a year he may not find work and would certainly not find work with the Rays. I have to believe, should Bonds take $4 million a season, that the Rays would find this to be an acceptable amount.
This story just really broke yesterday so keep your eyes peeled on the news as this plays out over the coming days and weeks.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:23 am
[…] Rays Blog wrote an interesting post today on Bonds to Rays?Here’s a quick excerptBonds to Rays? by Blake @ 9:17 am. Filed under 2008 Rays There has been a lot of talk lately about the Rays being a possible landing spot for the unemployed Barry Bonds. You may know Bonds’ name for being the single season home run record holder and the career home run leader. Bonds who has played for only Pittsburgh and San Francisco in his career is currently a free agent. Bonds, 43, would clearly make just about any team better. He still hits for power, gets on base at a other world […]