Giants interested in expanding Barry Bonds’ role as instructor

Barry Bonds is one of the greatest hitters of all time, and the San Francisco Giants are looking to put some of his knowledge to good use.

Bonds had a short visit with the Giants during spring training last year, which was his first instructional role with the team since his playing days ended in 2007. The Giants are now looking at expanding his role with the franchise, manager Bruce Bochy says.

Here is what the San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman wrote about the matter in his story from Giants FanFest on Saturday.

Manager Bruce Bochy made a little news during his session, saying the Giants are talking to Barry Bonds about a possible instructional role this season beyond a short spring-training visit, which Bonds did for the first time in 2014.

It’s not immediately clear whether Bonds might be a roving minor-league instructor, a visiting big-league coach (such as Will Clark and J.T Snow) or both.

“Nothing is set in concrete,” Bochy said later via text.

The news is significant because of how polarizing Bonds is. Despite being one of the best players of all time, Bonds has never received more than 36.8 percent of the Hall of Fame vote (he still thinks he will get in eventually). There was speculation that he was blackballed from MLB because of how controversial he was. And many franchises really would not want to be associated with him because of his BALCO/steroids ties. But the Giants have remained loyal to him and have honored him at games since his retirement, so it’s no surprise that they are also inviting him to instruct players.

Many were taken aback when we found out A-Rod was training with him over the offseason, but apparently it’s not a crazy thought that players might want to work with the Home Run King*.