Bobby Bonilla, an ex-Pirate for a week now, has this advice for his old team: trade Barry Bonds now.
Bonilla, who left Pittsburgh last week to sign with the New York Mets for a record $29 million over five years, suggests the Pirates won't re-sign Bonds, no matter how hard they try.Pirates general manager Larry Doughty said last week he would accept trade offers for Bonds, who can become a free agent next year. Doughty would prefer to re-sign Bonds, but doubts the Pirates can afford him.
"Get what you can for Bonds. Trade him," Bonilla told The Pittsburgh Press. "They won't sign him to a long-term contract. I know him. If they offer him $30 million, he'll figure he can get $35 million as a free agent."
Bonilla said he helped make Bonds a better player, an element that now will be lacking.
"I did get Bonds to play," he said. "If I did something, he turned it up a notch and tried to do better."
Bonds' agent, Rod Wright, met with Doughty on Monday and again Wednesday at the winter meetings in Miami Beach, Fla., but also isn't optimistic the Pirates can afford Bonds. The Pirates are said to have offered Bonds a five-year deal in the $25 million range.
"Basically, there is no way they are going to be able to sign Barry to a long-term contract," Wright said.
Meanwhile, Bonilla said he was disappointed that Doughty and other Pirates' executives suggested he wasn't serious about re-signing with Pittsburgh and was intent on becoming a free agent.
Bonilla's agent, Dennis Gilbert, said Bonilla would have signed for the Pirates' final offer of $22.5 million had it been made during the season. Former team president Carl Barger and board chairman Douglas Danforth questioned that, saying Gilbert never seriously negotiated with them.
Bonilla also is critical of remarks suggesting he doesn't deserve to be baseball's highest-paid player because he isn't among the game's 15 or 20 best players.
"Doughty said there are 15 players better than me. Name 'em," he said. "I mean, name 15 players that are better than me. And (Manager Jim) Leyland, saying I wouldn't have taken $22.5 million if it had been offered to me during the season.
"How's he know? The fact is, they never really tried to sign me. I never even got a phone call from (team president) Mark Sauer. Never talked to him. And he says I wouldn't have taken that. Well, I didn't know what I was going to get. How could I? Everyone was surprised with the money I got, so how could I know?
"They never negotiated. It was always, here is what we offer. Take it or leave it. That's all."