Spring training means nothing, yada yada yada.
Pablo: .339, 5 hr, 20 rbi
Just how encouraged should I be? I think it's impossible for anyone to convince me that he's going to put up a .320, 25 hr, 90 rbi season, but can someone convince me that he'll quite possibly put up a line of .290, 18 hr, and 80 rbi?
Which, of course, I would sign up for in a nanosecond.
We should be as encouraged as we can from the knowledge that he's basically healthy and in at least career norm levels of physical fitness.
As a comparison, consider Sandoval's first year here. Until May 19th he had a .758 OPS composed of a slash line of: .270/.342/.416. Then a 94 mph fastball off the left knee happened, followed by the medical staff finding no real structural damage and him attempting to play through it, but falling behind the estimated timetable of the team just a few days later with a comment from Farrell about continued pain, limited range of motion, and less ability to plant or pivot on the leg.
So a few weeks later his OPS has climbed from the mid-.600's where it descended after the knee injury back to .742, only to sprain his ankle, also on his left leg, in a game against the Royals on June 20th. Who knows if he ever actually recovered from them in 2015.
Pablo is a big dude. Knee and ankle injuries tend to be problematic for big guys (speaking from personal experience). He had two on the same leg within a month and tried to play through both.
A similar situation to the Hanley Ramirez shoulder injury of the same year, but instead of finding his focus that winter like Hanley did Sandoval basically checked out and came to camp for 2016 out of even his normal playing shape standards.
A healthy Pablo Sandoval could likely give us what we were starting to see in 2015, a mid-.700's OPS with roughly average 3B defense. Better than what we've gotten at 3B in a while I guess, but before we get too optimistic what happens if another mid-90's fastball catches his knee again?