Pablo Sandoval Rumors: So Blue Jays have a chance at signing Panda?

Midway through the movie “Dumb and Dumber”, Lloyd Christmas finally catches up to elusive Mary Swanson and asks her about his chances of winding up with Mary. After some pressure, she assures him that that the chances are a million to one, to which Jim Carrey’s character responds, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance… YEAH!”

That’s about how I feel about this news. Not the exclamation of “yeah”, but rather the fact that it came from “Dumb and Dumber”.

According to Dennis O’Donnell of KPIX 5, a CBS affiliate from the San Francisco Bay Area, is reporting that the Boston Red Sox are the 90% favorite to ink Pablo Sandoval, with the slugger currently in Boston to meet with the Red Sox. However, it is what he adds afterwards which is of particular interest to this fan base.

“The other 10 percent goes to the Toronto Blue Jays.”

That is an interesting statement to make, although given a 10% chance doesn’t provide much hope that Kung Fu Panda will be making Rogers Centre his home in the coming years either. In fact, O’Donnell goes on to offer the caveat the tax base in Toronto is what is keeping the Blue Jays as a legitimate dark horse rather than a real player in these negotiations.

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The 28-year-old Sandoval is one of the more highly sought-after free agents on the market and the Red Sox appear to be putting the full court press on him. A career .294/.346/.465 hitter, Sandoval is looking for a deal north of the 5-year, $90 million deal that the Giants gave Hunter Pence and has been said to be asking for a 7-year pact. That would take him out of the running for the Blue Jays, unless he was willing to take more money over a shorter term.

If the Blue Jays did land Sandoval, it would likely mean that Brett Lawrie slides over to second base to accommodate him. Sandoval, who has a career UZR/150 of 2.2 compared to Lawrie’s mark of 6.3, is a solid defender at third for his size but the Blue Jays would surely be sacrificing defense there.

Still, we’re not holding our breath on a 10% chance, nor are we overly excited about a possible huge overpay for Sandoval here. Better to let Boston have him and work out from under that contract in three seasons than to saddle the Blue Jays with it.