Patrick Sandoval Activated By Red Sox After Long Journey Back

[Steve Drumwright]

 

After a long wait, Patrick Sandoval is finally joining the Boston Red Sox.

The left-handed starter was activated Monday by the Red Sox off the 60-day injured list as he returns from Tommy John surgery and left biceps discomfort. To make room for Sandoval on the 26-man and 40-man rosters, left-handed reliever Alec Gamboa was optioned to Triple-A Worcester and right-hander Jack Anderson was designated for assignment.

Sandoval underwent Tommy John surgery during the 2024 season with the Los Angeles Angels, with his comeback delayed with the biceps issue. Sandoval signed with the Red Sox after the 2024 season with an eye on making it back for Opening Day this year. He made eight rehab appearances, pitching 23⅔ innings and putting up a 3.42 ERA with 13 walks and 22 strikeouts.

Sandoval has a 3.96 career FIP (4.01 ERA) with a 9.9% walk rate and 22.9% strikeout rate.

Gamboa has appeared in four games with the Red Sox this season, including making his MLB debut May 5. In five innings, he has allowed two runs on three hits, including a homer, with four walks and four strikeouts.

Anderson made his MLB debut in April, pitching in three games and covering eight innings. He walked two and struck out six, while giving up one run on eight hits. He has a 4.81 ERA in 16 games (11 starts) at Triple-A this year.

 

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[moonslav59]

He started yesterday, so why activate him today? Just wait 3-4 more days.

I know we have a day off, but still...

[moonslav59]

From 2021 to 2022, Sandoval was a decent pitcher. That was a long time ago, but he's still south of 30 years old.

2021-2022: 236 IP (245 Ks & 96 BB)

3.17 ERA (132 ERA+) 3.44 FIP

He had a 3.04 ERA/3.20 FIP and the 22nd best pitching fWAR from May 26, 2021 to the end of 2022. His 74 ERA- was ranked 21st.

I doubt he turns into that pitcher after such a short rehab, but maybe he can give us a nice boost.

$18M for this guy!

[Tedballgame]

3 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

From 2021 to 2022, Sandoval was a decent pitcher. That was a long time ago, but he's still south of 30 years old.

2021-2022: 236 IP (245 Ks & 96 BB)

3.17 ERA (132 ERA+) 3.44 FIP

He had a 3.04 ERA/3.20 FIP and the 22nd best pitching fWAR from May 26, 2021 to the end of 2022. His 74 ERA- was ranked 21st.

I doubt he turns into that pitcher after such a short rehab, but maybe he can give us a nice boost.

$18M for this guy!

18 million for 1/2 a year. Maybe he pitches well and they can trade him.

[notin]

Just now, Tedballgame said:

18 million for 1/2 a year. Maybe he pitches well and they can trade him.

He might get 4 starts before the deadline. Even if he’s outstanding, don’t expect much back…

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

18 million for 1/2 a year. Maybe he pitches well and they can trade him.

He certainly could be a target, if he has 2-3 nice starts.

[notin]

5 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

18 million for 1/2 a year. Maybe he pitches well and they can trade him.

The Sox have paid more for less…

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, notin said:

The Sox have paid more for less…

These seem to me more annoying than $21M for a "healthy" Buehler.

Giolito's $38.5M/2 was annoying too, but he was thought to be healthy, when we signed him, but these sucked:

$10M/1 Richards '21

$10M/1 Paxton '22

$10M/1 Kluber '23

$10M/2 Hendriks '24

$18.5M/2 Sandoval '25-'26

Too many years in a row!

[Hugh2]

10 hours ago, Tedballgame said:

18 million for 1/2 a year. Maybe he pitches well and they can trade him.

Teams get desperate at the deadline for good pitching.  A few starts doesn't mean much, but his value can literally skyrocket in that timeframe if he performs. 

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

Teams get desperate at the deadline for good pitching.  A few starts doesn't mean much, but his value can literally skyrocket in that timeframe if he performs. 

Indeed, and if he does well, we may just get back into the race and be buyers.

[Hugh2]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Indeed, and if he does well, we may just get back into the race and be buyers.

I'd still trade him if he had value.  We need bats. 

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

I'd still trade him if he had value.  We need bats. 

Oh, I'm for selling, as of now, and even if we get back in the race, I still may be for selling.

Perhaps we end up doing some of both.

Trade for pitching for a bat (buying.)

Trade the now for the future (selling)- likely bats, too.

Gray & Chapman

Duran, Sandoval & IKF

Coulombe & Guerrero

Even losing Gray leaves us very well set for the 2027 and beyond rotation. We have to determine who to keep and use some of that value to add a bat or two. I know some hate the idea of trading rotation depth, and it is a tough call. We've seemingly missed on a few, lately, namely Sale Harrison & Priester, but we've also added more, especially on the farm.

Crochet, Suarez, Tolle, Early & Bennett

Houck, Crawford, Oviedo, Bello, Anderson

Eyanson, Witherspoon, Valera, Futrell, Phillips

Holobetz, Paez, Wehunt, Rivera, Uberstine

Delzine, Ziehl, Monegro, Brown, Finley, Morgan/Ingrassia/Montero/Mayers

Teams would give up a nice bat for a couple of these arms.

 

[notin]

11 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

These seem to me more annoying than $21M for a "healthy" Buehler.

Giolito's $38.5M/2 was annoying too, but he was thought to be healthy, when we signed him, but these sucked:

$10M/1 Richards '21

$10M/1 Paxton '22

$10M/1 Kluber '23

$10M/2 Hendriks '24

$18.5M/2 Sandoval '25-'26

Too many years in a row!

Small potatoes compared to $231mill for less than 10 bWAR for Price and $145million for 150 IP and 2.5 bWAR from Chris Sale…

[moonslav59]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

Small potatoes compared to $231mill for less than 10 bWAR for Price and $145million for 150 IP and 2.5 bWAR from Chris Sale…

True, but 5 years in a row hurts, and for some of those winters, $10M was a major chunk of the new spending budgets. It was the largest signings is maybe 2-3 of those years. (I'm sure I'll be corrected, if wrong.)

The Price and Sale contracts were big chunks, too, and both crippled us for years to come, much more so than the 5 I just listed, but the pattern of consistently hoping for returns to greatness by aging and oft-injured pitchers and an o for 5 record hits home. (Okay, Wacha & Hill were half hits.)

To make matters worse, we recognized the need to stop counting on injured pitchers returning to greatness just in time to decide to trade Sale a split second before he actually did return to greatness...making or record on such choices oh for a big 6!

[Duran Is The Man]

27 minutes ago, notin said:

Small potatoes compared to $231mill for less than 10 bWAR for Price and $145million for 150 IP and 2.5 bWAR from Chris Sale…

there is a BIG difference in Sale & Price and the rehab losers they spend tens of millions on every year  -Sale & Price were established TOTR pitchers and they were HEALTHY when they were signed. Hendricks, Paxton, Sandoval, etc. were INJURED and needed months if not years to get healthy. we knew they'd contribute little if any. just a stupid f***ing way to run a team.

[moonslav59]

34 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

there is a BIG difference in Sale & Price and the rehab losers they spend tens of millions on every year  -Sale & Price were established TOTR pitchers and they were HEALTHY when they were signed. Hendricks, Paxton, Sandoval, etc. were INJURED and needed months if not years to get healthy. we knew they'd contribute little if any. just a stupid f***ing way to run a team.

Brez did start the shift towards higher spending on pitching, while making a major shift on farm pitching improvement.

The $38.5M/2 for Giolito and even the $18.5M/2 on Sandoval was way more than Bloom ever spent on 1-2 pitchers. Hell, those two alone was more money spent on SP'ers than Kluber, Richards, Paxton, Martin Perez x 2, Wacha and Hill combined. While the $21M/1 on Buehler back-fired badly, it was a significant upgrade in effort and focus. He also signed and extended Chapman, while trading for extending Crochet.

He then followed up all this up with the largest FA pitcher signing since Price- Ranger Suarez was the second highest pitcher signed, last winter (to Cease.) He's doing about as well as Cease and about 2/3 the cost.

Tolle has already given us quick returns on Brez's farm building strategy focused on pitching. Bennett was a fantastic get. Eyanson, Witherspoon, Phillips and several other pitching prospects added by Brez has helped our future pitching pipeline look as good as ever, and this after graduating Tolle & Early!

Now, we need that focus and dedication pointed to the offense.

[Bellhorn04]

3 hours ago, notin said:

Small potatoes compared to $231mill for less than 10 bWAR for Price and $145million for 150 IP and 2.5 bWAR from Chris Sale…

As an accountant I feel duty-bound to point out that the Red Sox actually paid Price $156 million.  Original deal of $217 million less $31 million for 2020, which Price opted out of, and $30 million for 2021-2022 that was paid by the Dodgers.

[notin]

4 hours ago, Duran Is The Man said:

there is a BIG difference in Sale & Price and the rehab losers they spend tens of millions on every year  -Sale & Price were established TOTR pitchers and they were HEALTHY when they were signed. Hendricks, Paxton, Sandoval, etc. were INJURED and needed months if not years to get healthy. we knew they'd contribute little if any. just a stupid f***ing way to run a team.

It’s actually quite common around the league.  Teams do it for cheaper pitching or to get easily moved trade fodder.  The long term deals for healthy pitchers almost always result in significant lost time as well, and can be far more debilitating to the team.  These short term deals, you’re only expecting one healthy year.  Which is all Boston got from Price, and Atlanta got Sale’s one healthy year on that contract.
 

Also Sale was looking pretty injured when he signed that deal…

 

[notin]

49 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

As an accountant I feel duty-bound to point out that the Red Sox actually paid Price $156 million.  Original deal of $217 million less $31 million for 2020, which Price opted out of, and $30 million for 2021-2022 that was paid by the Dodgers.

Fair.  And Sale really only got $127mill from Boston.  I just didn’t want to do the math…

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

As an accountant I feel duty-bound to point out that the Red Sox actually paid Price $156 million.  Original deal of $217 million less $31 million for 2020, which Price opted out of, and $30 million for 2021-2022 that was paid by the Dodgers.

There was also the cost we paid for including him in on the Betts trade, but you make a good point.

FAs and Extensions

$170M Crochet

$156M Price

$145M Sale (needs adjusting, too)

$130M Suarez

$101M Dice-K (counting posting fee)

$82.5M Lackey

$82.5M Porcello

$75M Pedro (largest deal by 1997)

$68M Beckett 2011

$68M Eovaldi

$38.5M Giolito

$32M Jansen

$30M Beckett 2007

$30M Lester 2012

$30M Buchholz

$26.5M Dempster (retired after 2013)

$25M Chapman (including '27 option)

$24.5 Schilling

$24M Foulke

$21M Buehler

$18.9M Barnes

$18.8M Whitlock

$18.3M Sandoval

$18M Uehara

$17.5M C Martin

Did I miss anyone making over $17M?

[illinoisredsox]

On 7/6/2026 at 5:30 PM, moonslav59 said:

He started yesterday, so why activate him today? Just wait 3-4 more days.

I know we have a day off, but still...

A pitcher gets 30 days max on a rehab assignment and he started his on 6/5; That ended on Sunday, so they either had to activate him, return him to the IL or send him packing.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, illinoisredsox said:

A pitcher gets 30 days max on a rehab assignment and he started his on 6/5; That ended on Sunday, so they either had to activate him, return him to the IL or send him packing.

Thanks.

[mvp 78]

On 7/6/2026 at 10:37 PM, notin said:

He might get 4 starts before the deadline. Even if he’s outstanding, don’t expect much back…

Something is better than nothing, which is what many people were expecting just a few weeks ago.