Article: Red Sox Sign Rehabbing Patrick Sandoval To Two-Year Contract

[Caleb Kohn]

The Red Sox have added another left-handed starter to the rotation.

Well, you really can never have too much pitching depth. According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Red Sox have agreed to terms with LHP Patrick Sandoval on a two-year contract worth $18.25 million. This is a pillow contract for the lefty, as Sandoval is currently rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, and should not be expected to pitch for the big league club any earlier than July. As such, the deal is structured so that Sandoval will make $5.25 million in 2025 and $15.75 million in 2026, reports Alex Speier. Sandoval has just over four years of big-league service time, and he was only available in free agency because the Angels non-tendered him at the end of the season.

This is a similar move to the signing of Liam Hendricks last offseason, as it features a rehabbing pitcher eyeing a midseason return, although Hendricks suffered several setbacks and ultimately was unable to make his Red Sox debut before the end of the year. Sandoval had some excellent seasons for the Angels, pitching to a 3.53 ERA over 380 1/3 innings from 2021 to 2023; a mix of quality and quantity that only 28 other pitchers were able to match. However, made just 16 starts and struggled to a 5.08 ERA in 2024 before undergoing internal brace surgery to repair his UCL. He will be looking to regain his top form and rebuild his value over the next two seasons.

Despite the downturn and the missed time due to injury, Sandoval has put up 8.8 fWAR over the past four seasons, making him one of the top 50 most valuable pitchers in the game. . Even if Sandoval doesn't approach those heights again, this move gives Alex Cora another solid option to turn to as the dog days of summer test the depth of even the best teams.

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[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

He'll be better than Sam Kennedy will be at the trade deadline, when Sam explains why they didn't recruit any actual talent for another stretch run (when they stretch out on lounge chairs to watch the playoffs).

[notin]

Sandoval is a good pitcher, but enough with the rehab deals already.  We haven’t even seen if the first two worked out yet.

[Tedballgame]

Another James Paxton. The Red Sox only get pitchers coming off of TJ surgery who are going to be out for most of the next season. Smart.

[notin]

19 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

Another James Paxton. The Red Sox only get pitchers coming off of TJ surgery who are going to be out for most of the next season. Smart.

But that was Bloom.  Paxton was healthy and pitching when Breslow acquired him.  And that is a rarity right now…

[sk7326]

Uh, I saw the headline "Sox sign Sandoval to a 2-year deal" and almost had an aneurysm.  Then I saw PATRICK Sandoval and was like thank god. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

3 minutes ago, sk7326 said:

Uh, I saw the headline "Sox sign Sandoval to a 2-year deal" and almost had an aneurysm.  Then I saw PATRICK Sandoval and was like thank god. 

Plan G (this year's Giolito) -- except he's already rehabbed goods.

If it ain't broke, don't Red Sox it.

[jad]

7 minutes ago, sk7326 said:

Uh, I saw the headline "Sox sign Sandoval to a 2-year deal" and almost had an aneurysm.  Then I saw PATRICK Sandoval and was like thank god. 

At least Pablo would be on the field the first half of the season.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

The SOX continue to operate as a mid-market team with high-market ticket prices. 

Good news: Sandoval is a LH.

Bad news: Coming off TJS, who knows how effective he'll be and we won't find out no earlier than July, 2025.

It would have been funny if Soto had accepted the SOX 700 mil offer. JH would have had a heart attack while shouting out "I was only kidding."

[notin]

39 minutes ago, jad said:

At least Pablo would be on the field the first half of the season.

That’s only because that’s how long it took the grounds crew to roll him off of it…

[Duran Is The Man]

essentially $18.5 million for next season. no way he's any kind of use this year. insane. this fits Henry's MO of signing broken down rehab projects for short-term deals. iow, throwing s*** at the wall and hoping something sticks. with this in mind, there is no way in hell he signs Burnes or any other decent healthy pitcher to a long-term deal.

[moonslav59]

This is just what I hoped we did NOT do.

[Nick]

I can't tell you how disgusted I am with this.

What's the upside for paying almost $20M for this guy?

You mean to tell me we couldn't have added another high level bullpen guy for 2 years at $20M?

Bres can go to hell.

 

[moonslav59]

I agree, Nick. This signing is horrible, especially for a team that is pinching pennies. This likely means we will not sign a big FA pitcher.

If all we end up signing is Bregman, Teoscar or Santander, it will still be a failed winer.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

How can anyone criticize this offseason, after Sam Kennedy assured all: "There is an extreme urgency for a deep postseason run in 2025 without question. EVEN IF IT TAKES US OVER THE CBT."

Sandoval may have a broken wing, but there is so much urgency that this signing had to be for 2025 without question. The president told us so.

It may be tempting to ask Kennedy to please remove his size Sam from his big mouth (because in Boston, CBT stands for Closed Budget Today). But Red Sox free agent signings this entire decade are from a special sign language to fans...

... the sign of holding up one finger (it doesn't mean We're #1).

[bkzwhitestrican]

He should be ready just in time to trade away at the deadline

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, bkzwhitestrican said:

He should be ready just in time to trade away at the deadline

We'll be lucky if he's ready by opening day 2026.

[moonslav59]

Signed Paxton for the end of '22 and all of '23: he missed '22 and part of '23.

Signed Hendriks for the end of '24 and all of '25: we've yet to see one pitch.

Signed Sandoval for the end of '25 and all of '26: any guess what will (not) happen?

But hey, in 2023, we played it safe and signed iron man Kluber.

[vjcsmoke]

Red Sox go dumpster diving again. Sandoval won't even be available for the first few months so this is like a 1.5 year rental.

It's hard to express how much I hate the Red Sox front office under this cheap ownership.

[vjcsmoke]

9 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Signed Paxton for the end of '22 and all of '23: he missed '22 and part of '23.

Signed Hendriks for the end of '24 and all of '25: we've yet to see one pitch.

Signed Sandoval for the end of '25 and all of '26: any guess what will (not) happen?

But hey, in 2023, we played it safe and signed iron man Kluber.

Your forgot the worst signing, Trevor Story, he has played 94, 43, and 26 games for the Red Sox each season.

Absolutely clown school these signings. They don't care about the player health history as long as he's marginally cheaper than the other choice.

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, vjcsmoke said:

Your forgot the worst signing, Trevor Story, he has played 94, 43, and 26 games for the Red Sox each season.

Absolutely clown school these signings. They don't care about the player health history as long as he's marginally cheaper than the other choice.

Oh... I remember.

I was just listing the pitching pattern.

[vjcsmoke]

5 hours ago, sk7326 said:

Uh, I saw the headline "Sox sign Sandoval to a 2-year deal" and almost had an aneurysm.  Then I saw PATRICK Sandoval and was like thank god. 

You talking about Pablo Sandoval? yes that deal made ZERO sense at the time and even less sense in hindsight.  Red Sox love to waste money on guys who don't improve the roster. I don't get it. Then they complain their payroll is too high and you look at how high their dead money is from paying money to players who aren't even on the ML roster anymore.

Pablo Sandoval signed a 5 year , $95,000,000 contract with the Boston Red Sox, including $3,000,000 signing bonus, $95,000,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $19,000,000.

 

Pablo Sandoval | MLB Contracts & Salaries - Spotrac.com

Spotrac.com

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

The past few hours -- after been focused more on Red Stripe than Red Sox -- I realize I need to apologize to the board for my emotionally enlarged upper case fonts.

And to Breslow and Kennedy, who are doing the best they can working for an owner who is obviously no longer all-in for the fans of Red Sox Nation.

So: gotta credit guys like Bloom and Brez, who are too smart not to know what was in store for them as CBOs... the rehabbing bin pitchers may suck, but not always, and Bloom and Brez probably enjoy doing thousand-piece Red Sox puzzles every winter, even knowing there are always going to be four or five pieces lost in couch cushions or under rugs forever (or until they move to new cities).

Sammy -- it may eat you up inside to have to constantly lie, but we do realize that all presidents lie (some all the time). And if we're being honest, most of us typists would probably do it, too, and not turn down the job if offered... not so much for the salary, but just for the free tix and special seats every night.

Go, Red Stripe!

 

[Larry Cook]

I like the Sandoval signing! It sounds like we overpaid because somebody else was bidding against us!!

look at the bright side, bres-slow finally won a bidding war!!!!!!!

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

The past few hours -- after been focused more on Red Stripe than Red Sox -- I realize I need to apologize to the board for my emotionally enlarged upper case fonts.

And to Breslow and Kennedy, who are doing the best they can working for an owner who is obviously no longer all-in for the fans of Red Sox Nation.

So: gotta credit guys like Bloom and Brez, who are too smart not to know what was in store for them as CBOs... the rehabbing bin pitchers may suck, but not always, and Bloom and Brez probably enjoy doing thousand-piece Red Sox puzzles every winter, even knowing there are always going to be four or five pieces lost in couch cushions or under rugs forever (or until they move to new cities).

Sammy -- it may eat you up inside to have to constantly lie, but we do realize that all presidents lie (some all the time). And if we're being honest, most of us typists would probably do it, too, and not turn down the job if offered... not so much for the salary, but just for the free tix and special seats every night.

Go, Red Stripe!

 

Always enjoyable reads.

While I do agree that JH is making our CBO/GMs job near impossible, he's not holding a gun to their heads over Sandoval.  $18M is enough to do better, even if just for a dreaded one year deal. $18M added to the next guy we sign could have gotten healthy quality over speculative promises.

[moonslav59]

24 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

I like the Sandoval signing! It sounds like we overpaid because somebody else was bidding against us!!

look at the bright side, bres-slow finally won a bidding war!!!!!!!

Nobody was bidding that high, except maybe Cohen getting JH back for the Soto push.

[Hitch]

I like the deal, as long as this isn't it for the starting rotation. 

 

The issue is, this is quite possibly it for the starting rotation. 

[vjcsmoke]

2 hours ago, Hitch said:

I like the deal, as long as this isn't it for the starting rotation. 

 

The issue is, this is quite possibly it for the starting rotation. 

Red Sox signed Giolito for 38m/2 years and that was their “big signing” last offseason. Of course he didn’t pitch a single inning for us last year. His deal might as well have read 38m for 1 year of play.

This is how the Sox burn 🔥 good money in their dumpster diving for injured players. It’s insane to me that they repeat this behavior with Sandoval who likely will miss most of 2025 recovering from TJ surgery.

[Hitch]

18 minutes ago, vjcsmoke said:

Red Sox signed Giolito for 38m/2 years and that was their “big signing” last offseason. Of course he didn’t pitch a single inning for us last year. His deal might as well have read 38m for 1 year of play.

This is how the Sox burn 🔥 good money in their dumpster diving for injured players. It’s insane to me that they repeat this behavior with Sandoval who likely will miss most of 2025 recovering from TJ surgery.

Golito got injured after signing last year.

 

As I say, if it's a depth move I like it. If that's that for the rotation it's horrible. 

[Hugh2]

Great move.

if the Sox don’t add another GOOD starter who is ready for opening day 2025 then shame on them.

but on its own, great depth move.