Pablo Sandoval collected three hits and scored the game-winning run in Game 7 of the World Series. From a player who has been a part of all three San Francisco Giants championships and has proven to be one of the most clutch playoff hitters in the game, the role he played on Wednesday certainly was not a surprise.
Sandoval, who is 28 and still very much in his prime, will now become a free agent. Reporters wasted no time after Game 7 asking Giants CEO Larry Baer about the potential of losing one of his most important players.
“Look, we’ll do the best we can,” Baer said, via Andrew Baggarly of CSNBayArea.com. “And up till now, the best we can has been to secure our guys.
“Pablo’s an amazing baseball player. He’s a sweet guy. He plays the game like a kid but he’s a man’s man. We all know he’s got a lot of talent and we all know you go through highs and lows with a player. In the end, he’s a heck of a baseball player and he fits in this crazy quilt framework of ours really well. Having said that, you can’t predict free agency, and other teams, and agents and everything. So we’ll see.”
Sandoval has hit .426 with seven extra-base hits, eight RBI and nine runs scored in 12 career World Series games. Without him, you could easily make the case that the Giants would not have captured three championship trophies since 2010.
When asked about his impending free agency, Sandoval kept it simple.
“I’m just going to celebrate,” he said.
And celebrate he should. Sandoval will enter the winter in an incredible position of strength. The Giants offered Sandoval a three-year, $40 million extension last spring, which he wisely turned down. He’ll now hit the open market with teams like the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees (if Chase Headley leaves) in desperate need of help at third base. Pablo is going to be a happy man before the start of the 2015 season one way or another.
