John Farrell Hints That Pablo Sandoval Could Lose His Job To Travis Shaw As Early As Opening Day
The Red Sox could learn a thing or two from the Dodgers.
Yeah, I said it. I’ll say it again. The Boston Red Sox could actually learn something from the Los Angeles Dodgers, the same team who willingly took on Carl Crawford’s abysmal 7-year, $142 million contract with five and a half years remaining. Because while I sort of understand why they did that, being that they really wanted Adrian Gonzalez, the Crawford aspect of the trade has not so surprisingly been a failure. It has failed so much that, despite the fact that he’s set to be paid $20.75 million in 2016, the Dodgers have come out and said that he’s going to be a bench player. Why? Because he sucks, he knows he sucks, and the Dodgers have better options.
Now, why is that such a foreign concept in baseball? I mean, I get the idea of guaranteed contracts, and you want to get the most value that you possibly can from these players that you’re paying a ton of money to, but if you have better options, why not just use them? You have to pay them anyway. Originally, the idea of Travis Shaw earning a starting job out of spring training seemed far fetched. Not because he didn’t deserve one — he does — but rather because the two infield spots that he can play were occupied by high-priced free agent acquisitions from a year ago. Whether or not we’ll actually see Shaw out there on Opening Day remains to be seen, but it seems like Red Sox manager John Farrell isn’t making any promises to Sandoval starting at third base.
Does Sandoval understand he has to perform in order to win a starting job at third base?
“I think he’s very well aware of it,” Farrell said.
“(Yesterday) was a good showing for him,” Farrell said. “He swung the bat well. There is no denying his work, the amount of work he’s putting in, the intensity in which that work is being carried about. And as he’s aware, the work has to translate to performance, for any and all of us.
“He understands this about putting the best team on the field from Day 1. And games in April are equally important to every other time of the year and it’s our job to get out of the gate with the best team on the field.”
Honestly, this is refreshing to hear from Farrell, because it’s not exactly what we’re used to hearing or seeing from him. How long did he stick with Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino and other struggling veterans when the team had better options? It shouldn’t be about what the player makes, or how much service time they have. It should be about which players give you the best chance to win a ballgame on any given day. If the guy making league minimum gives you a better chance to win than the guy who’s making $95 million, so be it. Put him in the lineup.
And it sounds like that’s what Farrell’s strategy will be. You know, because it actually makes sense and all. But the other factor at play here is that Farrell is now fighting to keep his job. Winning the 2013 World Series bought Farrell a second chance after the Red Sox finished in last place in 2014, but a second consecutive last place finish should remove 2013 from the equation. The leash is short, as it should be. The Red Sox need to win in 2016 — not just because Farrell is trying to save his job, but because three last place finishes in four years is completely unacceptable in a market like this.
But I will say that Sandoval has been hitting a little bit this spring (.250 batting average, .847 OPS), not that offensive stats in spring training actually matter. However, it’s a positive sign to see him swinging the bat well. That being said, his defense has shown little to no improvement, which was a bigger issue with his 2015 season than his offense. And to all the pussies who came out of the woodwork, saying that writing about Sandoval’s weight at the beginning of spring training was “fat shaming”, he’s a professional athlete. Part of his job is to be in shape, and part of my job is to critique the job that he does as a professional athlete. He stinks at his job. Oh, and to the “leave him alone, he’s always been fat” crowd, here’s a note from Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe yesterday:
Here are more reasons Pablo Sandoval’s weight is a factor: There were 17 instances last season when Sandoval was on first base when a single was hit, and all 17 times he made it only as far as second base. There were seven times when Sandoval was on first when a double was hit, and six times he made it only to third, and he never scored. And in the 11 times he was on second when a single was hit, he scored just three times. His “extra base taken percentage” of 9 percent was half of David Ortiz’s. Dustin Pedroia was at 32 percent and Mookie Betts 44 percent.
If you’re in the “Sandoval’s weight isn’t an issue” camp, you’re just flat out wrong. Regardless of that, I highly doubt the Red Sox will attempt to just hide Sandoval on their bench. It’s pretty clear that Shaw needs to be getting at-bats fairly regularly, yet a bulk of his innings have been at third base. Like today, Shaw is playing third base, while Sandoval is DHing.
It makes you wonder, because they keep saying they’re going to give him a look in the outfield — presumably to increase his versatility, which will increase his opportunities to get more at-bats — but they’ve yet to actually put him out there, and we’re two weeks away from Opening Day. Instead, they just keep putting him at third base. Hanley Ramirez needs as many innings as he can get at first base, and to his credit, he’s been taking them, but if the Red Sox were actually committed to Sandoval at third base, why haven’t they been getting Shaw acclimated to the outfield?
It’s because they’re not committed to Sandoval at third base, and they shouldn’t be.