Parting with Panik: Such sweet sorrow
Giants’ beloved second baseman is released
Conner Menez walked into the Giants’ clubhouse Tuesday to find a locker with his nameplate and No. 51 attached. He’s right next to Jeff Samardzjia, one of the old hands, and the way this team moves its players in and out, it offered the rookie pitcher a measure of contentment as he arrived from a minorleague stint in Sacramento.
Joe Panik’s locker was just about empty. A few of his Marucci bats and assorted items remained, but the Giants’ beloved second baseman has departed, and he won’t be back.
The business of baseball can be cruel, as Panik discovered when he was called into manager Bruce Bochy’s office Monday night. It also can be the fulfillment of a dream, which is where we find the 24yearold Menez and his family — and those stark opposites of transition have come together: a touching farewell and a hopeful hello. If visitors found the clubhouse mood a bit unsettled, even awkward, no explanation was necessary.
Technically, Panik was designated for assignment, which left open a path to Sacramento and a way to stay with the organization, but Panik is a man of true instincts. The Giants clearly are moving on at second base without him, and he opted to become a free agent, able to sign with another team, rather than resign himself to the bus rides,
dusty fields and rampant insecurity of minorleague ball.
Bochy called his meeting with Panik “one of the most difficult conversations I’ve had in my career. It got a little emotional, and that’s gonna happen, because it’s tough, especially for someone who’s done so much for this team. If that’s not tough, you’re not human.”
It was an adventure into new territory for president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who has acquired and demoted young players without hesitation but hadn’t dealt with the team’s core — the list of World Seriestested players that has dwindled to Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Belt.
“There’s a lot of familiarity and comfort with that group,” Zaidi said in the dugout before Tuesday night’s second game of the Washington series. “And it’s hard to change that mix, especially for a guy like Joe. He’s been one of my favorite players over the years, both watching him across the way (as an A’s and then Dodgers executive) and being with him this year. He’s a guy who makes sacrifices and always puts the team first.”
As much as anyone, Zaidi understands how radically the game has changed in recent years — and the effect on Panik’s value. He’s not a .300 hitter, he doesn’t hit for power, he doesn’t change games with his speed or defensive range, and he doesn’t have the versatility to play multiple positions. These are the demands of today’s second basemen, and with Panik having a subpar season, the Giants felt comfortable going down the stretch with Scooter Gennett and Donovan Solano, with minorleague prospect Mauricio Dubon (acquired in the Drew Pomeranz deal with Milwaukee) an attractive option for the near future.
Still, there is heartache among friends. “He was only my teammate for a couple of months, but in that short time, we got pretty close,” said catcher Stephen Vogt, intimately familiar with the game’s business side as he plays for his third team in three years. “It hurts — more so for the guys who have been with him the last six years. And it’s gonna hurt for a while. It’s the kind of move that can really deflate a room.”
With the Giants, the 2014 postseason was Panik’s showcase: 3for5 in the victorious wildcard game at Pittsburgh, a tworun homer off the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright in the clinching Game 5 of the NLCS, and the unforgettable double play he started in Game 7 of the World Series at Kansas City — diving to his right to snag Eric Hosmer’s sharp grounder and flipping the ball out of his glove to Crawford from his knees. It was a 22 tie in the third inning at the time, Jeremy Affeldt trying to rescue a rocky Tim Hudson start, and “to be honest, that play probably won the game for us,” Bochy said Tuesday.
Like Panik, Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper was a highly respected second baseman in his playing days, and he felt the sting of being traded (Cleveland to the Giants) from the only team he’d ever known. He also saw a lot of good friends come and go. “It’s one thing if it’s a guy you don’t give a rat’s ass about,” Kuiper said, “but everyone cares about Joe Panik. There are tons and tons of emotions, but you find out that when the game starts, you don’t think about it anymore. Because you can’t. It’s almost like losing a loved one, and you can’t wait to get on the field so you don’t think about it.
“And then after the game, you start thinking about it again.”
Menez, a rookie pitcher from Hollister, badly wanted his second bigleague start to become a conversation piece — among Giants teammates, fans and the front office. It didn’t quite work out that way. He left the game trailing the Nationals 51 after six innings, giving up home runs to Kurt Suzuki and Trea Turner. It’s hardly a catastrophe; Menez is young and has time, his career just beginning.
Joe Panik leaves in a swirl of sadness, hoping for resurrection in some other town.