All it took was one bad season and a below-average spring training for Pablo Sandoval to completely ostracize himself from the entire Boston Red Sox organization. Panda was placed on the disabled list on Wednesday, and it didn't take long for some significant rumors to surface.
If it hasn't been obvious enough up until this point, the relationship between Sandoval and the Red Sox hasn't been working out. The veteran parlayed his career-worst campaign at the plate in 2015 to losing his starting third base job to Travis Shaw in 2016.
Now, manager John Farrell won't even use Sandoval as a pinch hitter, and he's not going to get any playing time until the team sees a definitive reason to put him on the field.
"Here's how ugly it has gotten, major league sources told Yahoo Sports: Sandoval wants to stay in Boston only if he can play every day, and the Red Sox have no intention of playing him unless he loses weight and others in their current lineup struggle," wrote Jeff Passan.
Reports have suggested that the Red Sox had asked Sandoval to lose some weight in the offseason. They also requested the same from Hanley Ramirez, who actually did lose some weight as he endured a transition to first base. But just like every other year of his career, Panda showed up to spring training looking alarmingly heavy, which has done nothing but hurt his performance, especially on defense. He hit .204/.231/.408 with three runs scored, two home runs and seven RBI in 49 at-bats.
Boston wasted no time moving on. The club knew that Travis Shaw was ready to assume a full-time role at the MLB level, and he once again proved that he's capable. After an impressive 65-game stint with the Red Sox last year, the 25-year-old was one of the team's top performers during spring training, which made Farrell's decision all the easier.
Here's another excerpt from Passan's piece that sheds more light on how fed up the Red Sox seem to be:
"The curiosity of the DL move grew as the day went on. Sandoval complained of mysterious left shoulder pain, and the Red Sox chose to immediately place him on the disabled list without having tried to diagnose the severity of the injury with an MRI, sources told Yahoo Sports. By the end of Wednesday, Sandoval still hadn't visited an MRI machine, a standard procedure that precedes a DL trip in nearly every case but catastrophic injuries."
While trade rumors will continue to surround Sandoval, it's hard to envision a scenario where another team is willing to pick up a decent portion of his contract because it's doubtful the Red Sox want to absorb a majority of that money (he's owed about $75 million). Additionally, Passan said the one team that was previously interested in trading for him - the San Diego Padres - has "cooled" on the idea.
Whatever the case, at least there will be a bit of a break in the controversy for the next two weeks.
