Rays deny interest in Bonds, report says
Home run king and suspected steroid user still looking for new team
![]() Tannen Maury / EPA | Barry Bonds has 762 career home runs. |
Slide show |
Week in Sports Pictures Rough and tumble baseball, a grand golf finish, a driver captures the flag, and more. more photos |
Slideshow |
The Expert's All-Stars Tony DeMarco breaks down his picks for the starting lineups of both MLB All-Star teams. more photos |
Video: Baseball from NBC Sports |
Manny wants to move on from suspension July 4: After returning from a 50-game suspension, Manny Ramirez says he wants to leave the past in the past. |
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Tampa Bay Rays have no interest about the prospect of pursuing Barry Bonds, the Tampa Bay Tribune reported Monday.
Manager Joe Maddon said earlier Monday he knew “little” about what was going on, but acknowledged some thought has been given to the career home-run leader.
“A minor discussion was thrown out there a little bit, and it’s really not gone any further than that,” Maddon said after Monday’s workout at the team’s spring training facility. “That’s all it is right now.”
The St. Petersburg Times reported in Monday’s editions that team officials have conferred among themselves about Bonds and other veteran unsigned free agents, such as Kenny Lofton and Mike Piazza. Andrew Friedman, Rays vice president of baseball operations, called the report a “non-story.”
Bonds, who broke Henry Aaron’s career home run record last summer, has pleaded not guilty to perjury and obstruction of justice charges stemming from testimony to a federal grand jury in 2003 in which he said he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
Maddon shrugged off a question about how Bonds might fit in with the Rays if the team decided to pursue him and ultimately added him to the roster.
“It’s hard to conjecture. ... I don’t know this man. I only know what I read, and I’m very much open to meeting people and drawing my own conclusions about people. I don’t necessarily believe everything that I read,” Maddon said.
“For me to create conjecture of what it’s going to be like, I really don’t want to go there right now. ... So many things are going good right now. If I have to face those moments, I’ll do it at the appropriate time. But for right now, it’s really about nothing.”
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
LowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM BASEBALL |
| Add Baseball headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links





