It took a little over one month for Pablo Sandoval to etch his name into the San Francisco Giants’ record books.
On August 5, the Giants promoted Sandoval from AAA Sacramento to the Major League level to begin a controversial redemption tour, and one month later, Sandoval’s hitting has managed to neutralize any fans who were on the fence about his return.
With a pinch hit flyout on Wednesday evening in Colorado, Sandoval claimed a spot in Giants history, extending his hitless stretch at the plate to 38 at-bats, one more than Johnnie LeMaster, whose 0-for-37 streak in 1984 represented a San Francisco-era record.
After beginning his tenure with the Giants with four hits in his first 12 plate appearances, and 19 hits in his first 68 at-bats, Sandoval has endured the worst slump of his career in the midst of the worst season in franchise history.
Sandoval has appeared in 11 games since the last time he recorded a hit, with the majority of his at-bats ending in weak contact or strikeouts. The 31-year-old third baseman is stringing together non-competitive plate appearances for a team that’s played far too many non-competitive games, and his struggles have become a microcosm for the Giants’ season as a whole. A key asset during all three of the franchise’s recent World Series runs, Sandoval doesn’t look anything like his former self, and neither does his team.
During Sandoval’s first week with the Giants, he began to show the potential San Francisco’s front office believed he still possessed. A few doubles, a handful of nice plays at third base, and the infectious, often boisterous personality the Giants so desperately needed in the clubhouse proved that after Sandoval’s fiasco in Boston, he might still be able to contribute to a Major League team.
By August 25, Sandoval was hitting .288 with the Giants, and with a dearth of options remaining at third base, manager Bruce Bochy had every reason to believe that Sandoval should start on a daily basis. And therein lies a problem. Fortunately for the Giants, it’s a problem that wouldn’t have triggered a search for a solution if not for Sandoval’s 0-for-38 stretch at the plate.
Had Sandoval continued to perform reasonably well, the Giants would have been tempted to pencil him in as their starting third baseman heading into the spring of 2018. Though Sandoval would have likely needed to “earn” a job at Spring Training, a strong finish to the season would have allowed San Francisco to surround him with inferior or unproven options that would have made the job Sandoval’s to lose, not to win.
Because Sandoval will earn the Major League minimum over the next two seasons, there are financial incentives for the Giants to give the redemption tour every possible chance, and even after this historic slump, San Francisco still may revert to doing so. The Giants don’t want to continue paying Major League Baseball’s luxury tax, and by making Sandoval a fixture at third base, they would have the freedom to allocate resources elsewhere.
But starting the 2018 spring with Sandoval penciled in at third base would be an even greater miscalculation than beginning the 2017 campaign with Jarrett Parker and Mac Williamson vying for the starting job in left field. Parker and Williamson may one day prove they’re ready to lock down a starting role, but entering the season expecting to compete with such a tremendous unknown was an obvious oversight by the Giants’ front office, and general manager Bobby Evans has admitted as much.
If Sandoval finished up the year with an on-base percentage above .300, or power numbers that indicated he was on an upswing, San Francisco could have justified holding a competition among Sandoval, Ryder Jones and Christian Arroyo for the right to start as the Opening Day third baseman. And because the franchise thinks so highly of Arroyo, perhaps that will remain the case. But if it is, and the Giants’ third base experiment flops in 2018, it will add to the growing list of mistakes made by San Francisco’s front office.
Eventually, Sandoval’s historic slump will come to an end, and perhaps he’ll break out of it with an approach that suggests that he’s ready to contribute at a high level again. But at the very least, his slump will force San Francisco to be wary of false hope. It’s been three full seasons since Sandoval was a dependable, productive member of a Major League starting lineup, and he has a long way to go to prove he can play at that level again.
Because his salary is a non-factor, San Francisco can give Sandoval every opportunity to earn a role as a bench player in 2018. With time, his power may resurface, and his stunning ability to look good hitting bad pitches may return. But right now, both of those abilities are lacking, and so is everything else.
This offseason, San Francisco needs to develop a plan at third base, and whether it involves trading for a power-hitter, signing a free agent, or betting the house on Arroyo, it can’t involve Sandoval.
It’s been more than one month since Sandoval returned to the Giants and this much is clear: He’s still not a productive offensive player, and the Giants would be foolish to consider him as a starter in 2018.