After Pablo Sandoval reported to spring training overweight, with his bad first season firmly in mind, the Boston Red Sox turned to Travis Shaw as their starting third baseman. On Wednesday, the team placed Sandoval on the 15-day disabled list with what was classified as a left shoulder sprain. “Kung Fu Panda” apparently slept wrong, and the Red Sox put him on the disabled list without getting a firm diagnosis of the injury with an MRI.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports has passed along news that Sandoval only wants to stay in Boston if he can play every day. While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to play, it’s clear the Red Sox want Shaw in their regular lineup until further notice and there’s not another clear place for Sandoval.
Boston would probably love to trade Sandoval, and the San Diego Padres reportedly had some interest in him during the spring. But Sandoval’s waistline is not the only thing that’s inflated, with a minimum of $75 million due to him through 2020 ($5 million buyout for that year), so unless the Red Sox want to eat a lot of that money and acknowledge a big mistake a trade does not really seem imminent.
The Red Sox have unloaded big contracts before, sending Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett to the Los Angeles Dodgers in August of 2012. But that was a unique situation to say the least, with the Dodgers willing and able to add significant payroll, to say nothing of Gonzalez and Beckett still being productive players at that time.
Finding a taker for Sandoval will be much harder for Boston, unless he shakes off this shoulder “injury”, gets into better shape and can be productive when he gets opportunities. But this is a relationship that seems destined to end soon no matter what, and that should be good for both the Red Sox and Sandoval.
