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Ex-Marlins president: Bonds 'was a complete disaster' as hitting coach

Rich Schultz / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Just because someone's an otherworldly talent on the field of play doesn't mean those skills will translate to coaching.

Case in point - if you're asking former Miami Marlins president David Samson, anyway - is Barry Bonds, who served as Miami's hitting coach in 2016. It didn't go well.

"He had fun as a hitting coach because he would hang out with (Giancarlo Stanton) and give Stanton some pointers. But he was ineffective, completely," Samson said on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on Thursday.

"He would sleep in the clubhouse. He would not pay attention during games. He did not work hard. It was a complete disaster."

Samson said he was against hiring Bonds from the start, but he was ultimately overruled by then-owner Jeffrey Loria.

In addition to Samson's primary misgivings, he added the Marlins paid Bonds far more than a standard hitting coach earns.

"Bonds was an absolute pain in the ass about pay because he knew he had the job," Samson said. "And Jeffrey promised him an amount ... we paid him off the books.

"... We paid him separately so we would not be looked at as paying him as much as we were paying him."

Bonds received "well over" $1 million as the team's hitting coach, with most of the salary being paid to his private holding company on top of his base contract.

This also isn't the first time Samson has sounded off on Bonds' tenure with Miami. In late 2018, while also speaking on Le Batard's show, Samson said Bonds was the worst hitting coach he'd ever seen.

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