Pablo Sandoval Extended Qualifying Offer By San Francisco Giants
By Hayden Kane
Pablo Sandoval represents an interesting figure in this year’s MLB free agency market. The San Francisco Giants extended the third baseman a qualifying offer on Monday.
One of the most interesting cases in this year’s set of free agents is San Francisco Giants’ third baseman Pablo Sandoval. The Giants have to ask themselves just how much the fresh memory of this year’s playoffs matters and how much it will influence their opinion about a multi-year deal with him.
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As a regular season player, Sandoval has been infuriating at times. He is prone to extended cold streaks and he and the Giants have gone back and forth over the years about his weight and how it affects his endurance. Consider his 2014 numbers, which were above-average but not much more than that: .279/.324/.415/.739 with 16 home runs and 73 RBI in 157 games.
As a postseason player, however, Sandoval is the kind of guy who will be remembered in the history books. In his postseason career, Sandoval is a .344 hitter in the playoffs. He batted .400 in this year’s NLCS and he batted .429 in this year’s World Series. It might be ill-advised to pay somebody for his work in the playoffs when the majority of the contract will be played out in the regular season, but really, can you blame the Giants if they do?
On Monday the Giants extended a $15.3 million qualifying offer to Sandoval:
#SFGiants have made a $15.3 million qualifying offer to Pablo Sandoval, I'm told. They did not offer on Peavy, Vogelsong, Romo or Morse.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) November 3, 2014
In this case, the Giants might be buying themselves time to work out a deal with Sandoval. Despite reports that the two sides have been far apart in contract extension talks, it is hard to imagine Sandoval anywhere else. It seems unlikely that any other team will swoop in given the cost of a draft pick at this point, and so it nothing else, there is more time for the Giants and Sandoval to talk about a potential deal.
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