According to CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman, all-time home run king Barry Bonds has lost his collusion case against MLB.
It was reported back in May that Bonds planned to file a grievance on the grounds that he was blackballed from the game following the 2007 season. However, arbitrator Frederic Horowitz ultimately ruled in favor of MLB. Heyman writes that the ruling was made within the last few days.
Bonds had a bad reputation around the game and was reported to be a PED user by the time in question, but he posted a 1.045 OPS as a 42-year-old with the Giants in 2007. There’s no question that he could have been a productive player somewhere in 2008. He even offered to play at the major league minimum, but there were no takers.
It sure sounds like something fishy could have been going on here, but Heyman writes that there was “no smoking gun” in the case and that Horowitz “didn’t find the case compelling enough.” In other words, no hard evidence was found against MLB.