Pablo Sandoval leaving for the Red Sox is probably a good thing for the Giants, in the long term. Sandoval’s body likely won’t allow him to play third base a few years from now, his stats have gotten progressively worse over the past few seasons, and that’s a lot of money to tie up in a guy who’s probably going to be a DH before long. All of those are perfectly sensible, rational reasons to be okay with Sandoval heading east.
And yet for Giants fans, the Sandoval news is a total punch in the gut, followed by a kick to the groin, followed by a punch to the head. It’s the equivalent to Will Clark leaving for the Rangers in 1994 and then some.
Sandoval came up at a time when Giants fans were starved for something new. The Barry Bonds era had just ended, the team was in the midst a four year funk, and the farm system was so barren it hadn’t produced a viable position player since the 1990s. After tearing through the minor leagues, Sandoval came up to San Francisco near the end of 2008 and promptly hit .345/.357/.490. He followed that up in 2009 by hitting .330/.387/.556 and helped the Giants to their first winning record since 2004. This was a guy Giants fans could rally around.
He’d never reach those batting heights again, and weight issues started to take their toll the next year, but Sandoval still remained a fan favorite. His contributions to two of the three World Series teams are legendary. His three home runs in Game 1 of the ’12 Series remains one of the greatest accomplishments in baseball history. And he caught the final out of this last Series, falling to his back in celebration as he did it.
It never really seemed possible that his game-ending catch would be the last thing he’d do in a Giants uniform. Even with free agency looming it didn’t make any sense to think Pablo Sandoval would willingly leave the only team he’d ever known and the team that he’d helped to three rings. If anyone was going to be a Giant for life, it was going to be him.
So when the news broke that he’d picked the Red Sox, and that he’d picked the Red Sox after getting an identical offer or better from the Giants, a good number of Giants fans were understandably upset. Sandoval was the guy: he connected with fans in a way no one else on the Giants did, not even Hunter Pence, and that connection was magnified because he came through the Giants’ system. He was our guy, a superstar the Giants had developed, the first homegrown All-Star position player since Matt Williams. Thinking about him in another uniform was inconceivable. To know he willingly picked another uniform just didn’t make sense.
It’s hard to describe the connection between the fan base and Sandoval to someone who isn’t a Giants fan, but here goes: Sandoval could basically do no wrong. Even when he was out of shape, or slumping, or making questionable off-the-field decisions, Giants fans never abandoned him. They still bought panda hats, they still cheered him, they never got tired of his ridiculous pre-at bat rituals. Sandoval was a smiling, happy bundle of energy who hit the cover off the ball when the lights shined brightest. He was the complete opposite of Bonds personality-wise. It’s not a stretch to say there had never been a Giants player quite like Sandoval.
If you take the emotion out of it, it’s probably a blessing in disguise for the Giants to not commit themselves for that long and for that much money to a guy who hasn’t been able to stay healthy or keep his weight under control for two years in a row, ever. And the Giants can use that money to fill a number of holes they still have, like left field, the starting rotation, the bullpen, and, uh, third base. In two or three years, when Sandoval is too out of shape to play third base anymore and is posting okay numbers as a DH, Giants fans will probably look back at yesterday and be thankful.
But right now, today? It sure does suck.
