© Kiel Maddox | 2018 Jul 29
The Willie Mac Award is presented annually to the most inspirational player on the Giants, as voted by their teammates, coaches, training staff, and fans. Last year, Giants catcher Nick Hundley won the award in his first season with San Francisco, after Brandon Crawford and Javier Lopez split the honor in 2016.
Giants beat writer Henry Schulman was asked who he thinks will win the award this year when he joined Larry Krueger & Matt Maiocco on Monday, and gave two potential candidates.
“Pablo (Sandoval’s) been the guy that I’ve had in my head for most of the time,” Schulman said. “Everything he had done, sort of the turn around in his thinking. Everything he had done on the field, in the clubhouse, in the dugout, just seems to me that he’s one.
“I’ll go with Pablo.”
Sandoval has made progress rebuilding the bridge he burned with San Francisco when he signed with the Red Sox in 2015. Upon his exit, Sandoval said it wasn’t hard to leave the city and that he didn’t miss any of his teammates except for Bruce Bochy and Hunter Pence. After re-joining the team late in 2017, Sandoval embraced his role as a reserve utility infielder in 2018, and served as a positive influence on many of his young teammates. Sandoval also had a bounce-back year at the plate, posting his highest OPS (.727) since 2014, before a season-ending hamstring injury in late July.
“(Derek) Holland is another guy you can add to the list of candidates, because here’s a guy they signed for basically nothing as a minor-league free agent, and he’s now their innings leader and he’s been the glue that’s held the rotation together through all else this year. So throw his name in there he might get some votes.”
Holland, 31, is flirting with posting the best ERA of his career in 2018 (3.65) and along with Dereck Rodriguez, has been the Giants’ most consistant starter all season.
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Schulman on the Willie Mac Award, start from 12:00.
