Pablo Sandoval, Giants reportedly seeking reunion

The Giants are reportedly interested in signing Pablo Sandoval, per reports from MLB’s Jesse Sanchez and Jon Heyman.

Sandoval was released by the Red Sox Thursday morning and has not cleared waivers yet.

Low risks aside, the upside to re-signing Sandoval seems small, at best. Boston released him after a slew of incidents ranging from in-game Instagram likes to broken belts. He hit .237 over two and some injury-riddled seasons with the Red Sox, hitting 14 home runs in 161 games.

Then there’s the burned bridges back in San Francisco. Upon his departure after the 2014 World Series run, Sandoval said he would only miss Bruce Bochy and Hunter Pence and that the front office did not treat his manager kindly. So a return could prompt some major one-on-one apology time, since the core of that 2014 will still be there to greet him. Pence included.

Now for the positives: the Giants would be taking no risks in signing an old fan favorite in Sandoval. The Sox would be responsible for his $49.5 million remaining contract.

At worst, Sandoval makes his way to Sacramento, strikes out a bunch and stays there. At best, Sandoval is refueled by fumes of past glory and rides into San Francisco to turn the dismal season into, at least, a forgettable one and the fans will don their Panda hats again for all eternity.

Shayna Rubin is SFBay’s San Francisco Giants beat writer. Follow @SFBay and @ShaynaRubin on Twitter and at SFBay.ca for full coverage of Giants baseball.