In 2021, Pablo Emilio Sandoval was entering the sixteenth MLB season of his rollercoaster of a career. To very much oversimplify it, he was drafted out of Venezuela by the San Francisco Giants, with whom he made his debut in 2008. He was a fan favorite on three World Series teams there, but left right after the third championship in 2014 and signed a 5-year, $95 million contract with the Boston Red Sox. That proved to be a terrible decision (71 OPS+ in 161 games across 2 ½ seasons), and Sandoval was back with the Giants midway through 2017. In 2020, the Giants released him after a couple of serviceable years as a bench bat. The team that picked him up was the Atlanta Braves.
If Pablo Sandoval’s Braves tenure ended in 2020, no one would remember he was ever there. He had eight plate appearances between the regular season and postseason and didn’t get a hit. But, the Braves decided to bring him back.
Sandoval immediately rewarded their decision. On Opening Day in Philadelphia on April 1, he stepped up as a pinch-hitter with a runner on first base, two outs, and his team down 2-0. When the count got to 0-2, Braves fans likely weren’t expecting anything from the 34-year-old who barely made the roster. But Sandoval shocked everyone. He, as he always does, even on 0-2, swung as hard as he could at a pitch from Aaron Nola.
It’s pretty rare to hit a ball hit into the second deck in right field at Citizens Bank Park, but Sandoval did exactly that. 407 feet later, the Braves had tied the game.
“Well, now I say it’s a great idea to keep him on the roster,” said Braves color commentator Jeff Francoeur.
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The Braves traveled to the nation’s capital for their next series of the year. In the second game of a doubleheader on April 7, Sandoval stepped up as a pinch-hitter again. It was his fifth appearance of the year, all of them being as a pinch-hitter. He hadn’t gotten a hit since that first one. Here, he stepped up to the plate against Tanner Rainey, again with a runner on first. The game was scoreless in the seventh inning. When the count went full, the limited capacity at Nationals Park began cheering, but they would soon be silenced.
Sandoval hit another deep drive, this time to center field, and there was never any doubt about this one either. Center fielder Victor Robles climbed the wall for some reason, but the ball landed 413 feet away. Sandoval had come up in the clutch yet again.
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Sandoval got to rest for two games after that, but then was tasked with pinch-hitting in four straight games. He still had not started a game. And he went hitless in those four straight games.
It’s unrealistic to say that Sandoval was coming up big when the Braves needed him most. It’s impossible to do that when you’re exclusively a pinch-hitter–you are constantly being thrust into some of the most pressure-filled scenarios in the game. But he was doing about as well as you can possibly do as a pinch-hitter, even after going hitless in those four straight games.
And then Sandoval was called upon to pinch-hit in a fifth straight game, on April 15. The situation this time: down 3-2, runners on first and second, facing Marlins reliever Zach Pop. But it was Sandoval who would provide the pop.
Always the aggressive hitter, he swung at the first pitch. This time, he sent it to the opposite field. As it sailed over the fence and into the Marlins bullpen, Braves play-by-play broadcaster Chip Caray exclaimed, “Pablo! Pablo! Pablo!”
After only ten games, all of them coming as a pinch-hitter, just as he had done in San Francisco, Pablo Sandoval had become a phenom.
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After his third pinch-hit home run, Braves manager Brian Snitker finally let Sandoval start. He started two games in the Bronx and two in Toronto when the Braves could put him at designated hitter, and he finished both of those series with multiple hits. He was living the life: he never had to play the field, he usually only had one plate appearance per game, and if he got a hit that wasn’t a home run, he would be pinch-run for. He was blocked by Austin Riley at third base and Freddie Freeman at first base, so he would never be a starter even if he wanted to, but he was a damn good option off the bench.
So could anyone blame Braves fans when, down 3-1 to the Phillies at home on May 8, with a runner on first and one strike away from defeat, they had not given up all hope yet because Pablo Sandoval was at the plate?
This was the biggest situation Sandoval had been tasked with yet. I know I said pinch-hitters are constantly being thrust into some of the most pressure-filled situations in the game. But Sandoval was coming to the plate as the tying run with two outs in the ninth inning, and doing so for the first time in a Braves uniform. It doesn’t get more pressure-filled than that.
Sandoval was facing the Phillies’ closer, Hector Neris. On the first pitch, he swung and missed at a changeup in the dirt. As a younger man, he became notorious with the Giants for being able to somehow get hits on those pitches. Not anymore. Strike one. The next pitch was another low changeup, but it was also too far inside for even Sandoval to consider swinging at it. Ball one. Neris’s 1-1 pitch was a 94-mph fastball on the inside corner that Sandoval took one of his signature full-force swings at, but weakly fouled it away. He was down to his last strike.
As he called all three of those pitches, you could hear the cautious optimism in Chip Caray’s voice. He was, as were many Braves fans, optimistic thinking about those three pinch-hit home runs that Sandoval had already hit. But he was also cautious to not get his hopes up–he wouldn’t do it again, would he? And in this situation? No way.
With most other hitters in this situation, the possibility of a game-tying home run would diminish with two strikes. Most hitters are taught to protect the zone and just try not to strike out. Not Sandoval. We had already seen his “two-strike approach” on his home runs in Philadelphia and Washington. It was probably on the scouting report delivered to Neris, considering Sandoval’s Opening Day home run on an 0-2 count happened against his Phillies. Neris knew that if he made a mistake on this 1-2 pitch, Sandoval would not get cheated.
And Neris made a mistake.
It was a 93-mph fastball right over the plate. Sandoval took one of those mighty cuts, and he knew where it was going as soon as he made contact. So did Chip Caray.
“Headed to the bullpen!” he shouted, before getting out one last “Pablo!”
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Pablo Sandoval had done it. He had found his niche. After a horrendous start to 2020 that caused the team that took a chance on him a second time to release him, and a very forgettable end of 2020 with his new team, he was a pinch-hitter extraordinaire. Four pinch-hit home runs in a month, all of them either tying the game or giving the Braves the lead in the late innings.
That fourth home run was just the start of a night of madness at Truist Park. After Sandoval tied the game 3-3 in the 9th, Rob Manfred’s unpopular automatic-runner-on-second rule inflated the final score to 8-7, Braves in 12 innings. The winning run scored on a walk-off single by Ehire Adrianza, who was teammates with Sandoval in San Francisco and scored on that game-tying home run. Although that may have caused Braves fans to forget about Sandoval’s heroics, they certainly would feel confident every time manager Brian Snitker called on him to do what he does best: pinch-hit.
Then Sandoval hit a little dry patch. After that magical May 8 game, he went 0 for 7 before the Braves traveled to Boston and Sandoval further angered Red Sox fans by having a three-hit game against them on May 25. Then he hit a bigger dry patch, going 0 for 10.
When Pablo Sandoval singled to lead off the ninth inning in a 4-3 loss at Miami on June 11 and pitcher Drew Smyly pinch-ran for him, that was his final career hit. The finale of that Boston series would be his final career start. He finished his career on the biggest of dry patches: an 0-for-20 streak, ending when he struck out swinging on a sinker in the dirt against New York on July 29.
The next day, he was traded to Cleveland for outfielder Eddie Rosario and then immediately released. Cleveland wanted nothing to do with Sandoval. They just wanted to get rid of Rosario, who had a disappointing first season with his new team.
What did Eddie Rosario do with the Braves? Oh, he just had a 134 OPS+ and won NLCS MVP, hitting three home runs in the series, including the go-ahead home run in Game 6. The Braves never looked back from that home run and won that game to the World Series, which they also won in six games. Pablo Sandoval did get his fourth ring, but he was remembered for who he was traded for, not his heroics early in the season. Many Braves fans tweeted that Eddie Rosario was traded for a “fat cheerleader,” completely ignoring the magic that Sandoval had provided in an otherwise mediocre start to the season.
If you look at Pablo Sandoval’s Baseball Reference page, you’ll see that his 71 OPS+ in his extremely disappointing stint with the Red Sox is identical to his 71 OPS+ in 2021 with the Braves. To me, those numbers could not be more different. One represents a man who went where the money was and performed below all expectations, and one represents a man who went out for one last ride with a brand-new team and, for a little while, performed beyond everyone’s wildest dreams.
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