SAN FRANCISCO -- Contrary to reports issued on Saturday, the Giants have not internally discussed reacquiring third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who has struggled with the Boston Red Sox since leaving San Francisco.
Club executives are prohibited from publicly discussing the potential acquisition of players under contract with another team. Thus, Giants general manager Bobby Evans had little to say about a Boston Herald report citing a "baseball source" who claimed that San Francisco had contemplated bringing back Sandoval.
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"I am not aware of any consideration of a reunion," Evans said, "but we'll never forget all that he meant to the Giants organization."
The Giants, who project Eduardo Núñez as their primary third baseman for 2017, have been preoccupied with obtaining a closer to reinforce their bullpen.
Evans has remained cool to the suggestion of obtaining an offensively proven third baseman and moving the versatile Nunez to left field. People familiar with the Giants' baseball operations department emphasized that initiating talks with the Red Sox about Sandoval is absent from the club's priority list.
Left shoulder surgery limited Sandoval to three games with Boston in 2016. Continuing to battle weight problems, the "Kung Fu Panda" batted .245 with 10 homers and 47 RBIs in 126 games in 2015.
The Red Sox owe Sandoval a guaranteed $58 million through 2019, including a buyout for '20, under terms of the five-year, $95 million deal he received in free agency following the 2014 season.
Sandoval, 30, hit .294 with 106 home runs and 462 RBIs in 869 games with the Giants from 2008-14. His San Francisco tenure included All-Star Game selections in 2011 and '12, as well as hitting a record-tying three home runs in the 2012 World Series opener against Detroit.
Recording the final out of San Francisco's Game 7 triumph in the 2014 World Series at Kansas City, where he snared Salvador Perez's foul popup and slid to the ground in mingled relief and ecstasy, was Sandoval's last act as a Giant. Just days after he picked himself up off the grass, Sandoval rejected an offer from the Giants to sign with the Red Sox.