Usually teams that are sitting at the bottom of their division in August don’t have that many interesting storylines to keep fans engaged during the dog days of the baseball season. The San Francisco Giants are not most teams though. There are plenty of interesting young players who have been recently called up to the bigs like infielder Miguel Gomez and relief pitcher Kyle Crick, and some who might be in the majors soon like left fielder Chris Shaw and starting pitcher Andrew Suarez.
What might be the most intriguing storyline the rest of the way though is what will happen to Pablo Sandoval, who’s currently playing with the Sacramento River Cats. Sandoval currently has a .764 OPS through 8 games with the Giants Triple-A affiliate. Sandoval’s reunion with the Giants has been a divisive topic, but a return to the majors for Panda would generate a tremendous amount of interest, or at least curiosity. KNBR.com’s own Kerry Crowley shared his thoughts on what to expect from Sandoval and if he could make an impact beyond this season on this week’s edition of the Minor League Podcast.
“Pablo Sandoval has the track record in San Francisco, he’s produced at a high level here. Even though the last three seasons in Boston have frankly been abysmal, there’s hope that he’ll be able to turn it around here. The change of scenery, the comfortable setting for Pablo is something the Giants believe will help him thrive.”
If Sandoval returns to AT&T Park this season and finds success, it would be arguably the biggest story in an otherwise rough season, and as Crowley says it could create an interesting battle at 3rd base at spring training next season. “I really think the Giants want (Christian) Arroyo to win this spot outright and he’ll have to do so in spring training in 2018 because when he comes up, if he’s able to come up… in September when he comes back from that hand fracture, he’ll, at a maximum, get maybe 50 to 75 at bats. There’s no certainty heading into 2018 so I think they would be foolish not to have (3rd base) be a position battle.”
For more from Crowley on Sandoval, prospects to watch and thoughts on the Giants haul for Eduardo Nunez, tune into the latest edition of the KNBR Minor League Podcast.