Rumor mill grows larger for Pablo Sandoval

Oct 31, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants third baseman

(center) smiles during the World Series celebration at City Hall. The San Francisco Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals in game seven of the World Series. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

After a season-long saga, the Giants have reportedly offered Pablo Sandoval a five year, ninety million dollar deal. It was just seven months ago that Sandoval was asking for this kind of deal, but the Giants did not want to risk it early in the season and responded with a three-for-forty counteroffer. After said offer, the Giants basically tiptoed around addressing the situation until after the parade.

But the saga continues, as more teams are reportedly getting in on the action. The Red Sox have been rumored to offer him a deal, but no concrete information has come out yet. The Blue Jays are apparently going to make an offer as well. Earlier on in the month it was rumored that the Padres and White Sox might try to make a run at Pablo, but that did not come to fruition.

Literal Panda-monium

So outside of the Giants, there are apparently at least four other teams “going after” Pablo. Then, in a shocking turn of events, local CBS Sports Reporter Dennis O’Donnell wrote an article yesterday morning expressing that (according to his sources) Sandoval was more likely to sign with Toronto or Boston, and that the Giants were not even on his radar.

This is the same Dennis O’Donnell who knew about the Hunter Pence trade a few days before and reported on it, much to the demise of other reporters and insiders who quickly denied rumors. O’Donnell quickly retreated on Twitter this time around however, after causing turmoil between fans and reporters alike.

He stated that the Giants were never officially out of the race, rather that they would have to increase their offer to remain in it. Then we were reassured by local media that Pablo was still in talks with the Giants. This however did not stop panicked discussion amongst the fan bases, including speculation about the validity of media statements, statements from Pablo’s brother and statements from his agent.

Final Summation

So what is my point? Well it’s very simple, everybody needs to relax and let it play out. Why? Because contract rumors are to the MLB off-season what turkey is to Thanksgiving, it’s just something you expect to be there in large quantities in November.

Here is what we do know: The Giants are trying to keep Sandoval, the Red Sox are attempting to rebuild and the Blue Jays are trying to bolster their lineup. Each team will explore every option to reach their goal, any and every free agent is fair game, and it’s possible that teams will have to compete to meet goals. While these may seem like obvious statements, they are often forgotten ones in the heat of the off-season contract talks.