When the San Francisco Giants re-signed Pablo Sandoval, it was a big guess of whether or not he’d be able to get back to being his best. He’s not there yet, but he’s showing steady signs of doing so.
I’ll admit it: I didn’t want Pablo back. I was still in my feelings over the things he said when he left. I didn’t think it was fair that he would lash out the only franchise he had ever known, I even wrote an article on here saying that the first order of business
Well, he did. Multiple times. Thats where the move started. He did what he needed to do with teammates, fans, reporters, and I’m assuming, the front office as well. His player’s tribune piece was great as well. The best thing? It made Boston Red Sox blowhards nearly vomit.
But Pablo hasn’t been bad since he came back. His run in the minor leagues wasn’t impressive, but for whatever reason, the Giants decided to call him back up.
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He was slow to start out at the plate, and made a few errors trying to make a few plays that many doubt he can still make. But slowly, Pablo has been coming around. His swing is coming back, and maybe the power comes back. I have a hard time seeing that, but I also had a hard time seeing Pablo Sandoval back in the orange and black, ever.
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So far, Pablo has a .274/.318/.387/.705 slash-line. While the latter half isn’t very impressive, it might climb it’s way back up if he can start finding the gaps, hitting for more power. When the XBH come, and the power does too, then Pablo is back. He’s never been a gold glove third-baseman, and never will, so don’t freak out about the defense. Besides, the rest of these games basically don’t matter.
Ok, they matter in a “we want to win” (I hope the Giants even feel that way at this point). But they don’t matter. That’s the only reason Pablo was brought back anyways. If the Giants were in any sort of postseason race, Pablo would’ve been signing somewhere else. But because this season is a waste, and a loss at the this point it happened. If the Red Sox were a dumpster-fire, they might have given Pablo a chance. But they aren’t. Good teams can’t afford to take flyer on dudes who want a chance to rekindle their career, especially in the middle of the year.
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So if the Pablo returns to the “Panda form,” then you have the sucky 2017 Giants to thank for that. The biggest mistake the Giants can make though is bank on him being that for 2018. They still need to go out and get a third-baseman. A legitimate one. But if Pablo still wants to hang out and stay in the picture, then that’s fine as well. The experiment has gone pretty well, and it’s worth it to take it at least into spring training next year.