2016 AL East Rankings by Position: Third Base

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Sep 20, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Boston Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval (48) throws out Toronto Blue Jays catcher Dioner Navarro (not pictured) in the sixth inning at Rogers Centre. Boston defeated Toronto 4-3. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports /

4. Boston Red Sox – Pablo Sandoval, Brock Holt, Travis Shaw, Deven Marrero

Red Sox fans hope the Sandoval will be better in 2016. If not, it is going to be another massive contract that looks terrible (see Ramirez, Hanley), because KungFu Panda was bad in 2015. Negative WAR bad. He hit .245/.292/.366, and comparing that to the three guys above shows how bad his year was.

Sandoval is 29 years-old, so it is not like he is in an expected decline. Maybe it is the pressure of the AL East, a different animal than playing on the West Coast. Sandoval hit 10 HRs, 25 2Bs, 47 RBIs, 43 runs in 126 games. And if you look at his career numbers, they are nowhere near as good as the three guys above him. Maybe all those World Series performances have caused us to really overvalue Sandoval.

And, he isn’t going to give you much defensively. The big guy has a 0.0 dWAR for his career, which includes a negative number from 2015. Sandoval had 15 errors, and only turned 19 double plays, which is a low number for a third baseman.

When Sandoval needs an off day, it will likely be the Red Sox super utility man Brock Holt, or key bench cog Travis Shaw who sees playing time.

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