Barry Bonds Loses Collusion Case Against MLB over End of Career

An arbitrator ruled Major League Baseball teams didn't collude to prevent Barry Bonds from getting a new contract following the 2007 season, per CBSSports.com's Jon Heyman. 

Using the legislative strength of the MLB Players Association, Bonds filed his grievance against MLB back in May. Bonds and his attorneys argued team owners essentially plotted with one another to ensure Bonds remained unemployed.

On one hand, it was certainly unusual no team had use of a hitter coming off a campaign in which he hit .276 with 28 home runs, 66 runs batted in and had a .480 on-base percentage and a .565 slugging percentage.

In July 2008, Bonds' agent revealed the seven-time MVP was willing to take a massive pay cut in order to find a new home.

"I offered Barry at the minimum salary, and when I ran into a brick wall, that's when I came to the conclusion that he will not be in a major league uniform in 2008," said Bonds' agent, Jeff Borris, per Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com. "It seems pretty clear to me that it's just not happening. We could go up and down the rosters of every single team and I could show you an awful lot of spots where he ought to be plugged in right now, but it's just not happening."

Both Deadspin's Barry Petchesky and baseball writer Wendy Thurm found the arbitrator's ruling a little puzzling:

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Barry Bonds was coming off a 1.045-OPS season, offered to play for minimum wage, and got no offers. Sure, there was no collusion.

— Barry Petchesky (@barryap1) August 27, 2015"

On performance alone, Bonds would've been a strong addition for many teams at the time. However, FanGraphs' legal expert Nathaniel Grow made a compelling argument about how several additional factors could've scared off potential suitors:

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Indeed, MLB will undoubtedly contend that its teams had ample reason to each independently decide not to offer Bonds a contract for the 2008 season. Not only had Bonds earned a reputation for being a difficult teammate and a suspected PED user, but he was also entering his age-44 season, and therefore presented a significant risk for a steep decline. In addition, Bonds would have been playing under a cloud of legal troubles in 2008, after being charged in November 2007 with 14 counts of perjury and obstruction of justice (a case that – at the time – was expected to go to trial in early 2009).

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Convincing an arbitrator that then-commissioner Bud Selig and/or MLB owners conspired to blackball Bonds in 2008 was always going to be difficult without the presence of direct evidence confirming just that.

Fox Sports' Rob Neyer wrote in May even the San Francisco Giants had grown tired of Bonds by the end of 2007, so it was plausible those teams that could've realistically signed him all independently reached the conclusion adding him to the roster wasn't worth the hassle.

Bonds eventually made his return to the Giants in 2014 as a spring training instructor. Although he may have lost this lawsuit, you can envision him remaining in the game in a coaching capacity.

Mark McGwire was viewed in a similarly toxic light for years but eventually became hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, and he currently works in the same position with the Los Angeles Dodgers.