Pablo Sandoval hasn’t caught a major league game since May 8, 2009, but the Giants have asked him to prepare for emergency duty with rookie Hector Sanchez as the lone backup to Buster Posey on the active roster.
While Sandoval is quite comfortable with his regular gig at third base, he told Andrew Baggarly of CSNBayArea.com that he’ll do whatever it takes to help the team.
“If they need me, I’ll be in there,” the Giants’ opening day third baseman said. “It’s gonna be tough when you get two or three years not catching. You have to be ready to catch two bullpens in one day to make sure I’m fine. But I don’t get mad. It’s part of the team and if I have to do it, I’ll do it for sure.”
Sanchez is a switch-hitter, so the Giants want the flexibility to use him in certain situations without being exposed. Still, given how important Sandoval is to the team’s offense, it would probably take a pretty unusual circumstance for him to get behind the plate during a game again.
