Struggling Sandoval not worried about “noise”
Third baseman focused on getting back defensive timing with PawSox
PAWTUCKET — Standing at his locker before Friday’s PawSox game against Scranton/WilkesBarre, Pablo Sandoval said, “just keep working hard and do everything you can.”
Pressed further about the “working hard” part, Sandoval was asked if it’s important for him to show the Red Sox fan base, one that’s grown increasingly skeptical of his ability to produce in a major-league setting, that it’s premature to write him off completely.
“All the noise about what?” Sandoval said about the negative buzz that’s been generated at his expense in multiple media platforms. “I haven’t heard nothing. All I focus on his having fun and playing the game.”
Sandoval, the owner of three World Series rings and a cute nickname, has been a major disappointment since signing a five-year, $95-million contract with the Red Sox during the 2014-15 offseason. Flashing the same smile that made him very popular in the Bay Area with the San Francisco Giants, Sandoval made a pledge along the lines of Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator: I’ll be back.
“It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish,” Sandoval said.
The start of the 2017 season hasn’t been very good for Sandoval, a .212 hitter with five errors in 32 games with the Red Sox. This is his second rehab assignment in a month’s time with the PawSox.
“I don’t know what’s the plan,” Sandoval said about the prospect of him spending the full 20 days that injured MLB position players are afforded when the time comes for them to iron out the kinks in a minor-league setting. “I just want to feel comfortable in the field and get my timing back. That’s what I’m working on right now.”
The inner ear infection that landed Sandoval on the disabled list on June 20 is no longer a concern thanks to the power of antibiotics. Sandoval joined the PawSox this past Tuesday and went 3or-5 with a throwing error during Thursday’s game in Lehigh Valley.
When Sandoval last appeared in the PawSox clubhouse, it was Memorial Day and he seemed fully pre- pared to continue his rehab assignment on the road in Norfolk. Those plans were scrapped after Dustin Pedroia was placed on the disabled list and the Red Sox had a pressing need for an infielder.
“When you get hurt, you have to build everything back up,” Sandoval said. “The last time [he rehabbed with the PawSox], I got in four or five games.”
Sandoval appeared in seven games during his first go-around with the PawSox, going 4-for-25. An eighth game in a Triple-A setting was not in the cards. Instead, he joined the Red Sox in Chicago.
“An important guy [Pedroia] got hurt, but I don’t complain at all,” Sandoval said. “I was happy to be back playing.”
Sandoval served as Pawtucket’s designated hitter and batted third on Friday. Jhonny Peralta, signed recently as a minor-league free agent and whose mere presence in the Red Sox organization can be traced to Sandoval’s ineffectiveness, got the nod at the hot corner.
Sandoval and Peralta have a history. In 2012, the Giants won the World Series at the expense of Peralta and the Detroit Tigers. In 2014, Sandoval once again got the better of Peralta as the Giants topped the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS.
“It’s cool,” Sandoval said about the playing-time relationship he finds himself in with Peralta, one that as PawSox manager Kevin Boles explained will largely be a platoon arrangement where if one guy is at third, the other one will serve as the DH. “There’s a lot of things that myself and ( Peralta) have been through. You never forget when you face great guys.”
Sandoval has a ballpark idea of when he would like to rejoin the Red Sox. “Right now, the goal is to get back for the second half to help the team win,” he said. “I know we have a great team …”
A media member interrupted Sandoval with, “and you want to be a part of it.”
“You’re taking me out already?” Sandoval said with a hearty chuckle. “No matter the decision that’s made, I’m going to be part of that team.”