Pablo Sandoval Announces Retirement

Pablo Sandoval has announced the end of his playing career, after 14 Major League seasons and parts of 21 total seasons in pro ball.  The longtime third baseman is saying his farewell after a few more games with Navegantes del Magallanes, the Venezuelan winter league club Sandoval suited up for at the very start of his career (and at a couple of other points during his two-plus decades as a player).  The Turcos faced Tiburones de La Guaira in a two-game series at loanDepot Park in Miami this weekend, and Sandoval marked the occasion by hitting a grand slam in his final game in a big league ballpark.

“The Kung Fu Panda” last played in a MLB game in 2021 as a member of the Braves.  He played with two Mexican League teams in 2022 and a team in Dubai in 2023, then signed a minor league deal with the Giants during Spring Training 2024 but was released prior to Opening Day.  Sandoval played for the Staten Island FerryHawks of the independent Atlantic League in both 2024 and 2025, and is now officially hanging up his cleats at age 40.

Eleven of Sandoval’s 14 Major League seasons came in San Francisco, where he was an integral part of the Giants teams who captured World Series championships in 2010, 2012, and 2014.  He posted huge numbers during the last two of those title runs, and won World Series MVP honors in 2012 on the strength of one of the most memorable games in baseball history.  Sandoval went yard in his first three plate appearances in Game 1, putting Sandoval alongside Albert Pujols, Reggie Jackson, and Babe Ruth (who did it twice) as the only players to ever hit three home runs in a World Series game.

Sandoval was a career .338/.386/.535 hitter over 171 career postseason PA, and he hit .278/.330/.443 with 153 homers over 5052 regular-season plate appearances from 2008-21.  As per wRC+, his best two offensive seasons were actually two of the Giants’ non-championship years — Sandoval had a 146 wRC+ from a .330/.387/.556 slash line in his first full MLB campaign in 2009, and he hit .315/.357/.552 with 23 homers in 2011 for a 149 wRC+.

A career 110 wRC+ reflects the somewhat up-and-down nature of Sandoval’s play.  While the Panda nickname helped Sandoval stand out as a fan favorite (and made for plenty of memorable pieces of Giants merchandise), he also battled weight problems at various points in his career.  These issues cut into his playing time during the 2010 season, and began to again impact Sandoval’s play after he left the Giants for a five-year, $95MM free agent with the Red Sox prior to the 2015 campaign.

The signing was simply a bust for the Sox, as Sandoval posted a modest .646 OPS over 620 PA and 161 games in a Boston uniform before he was released in July 2017.  He didn’t hit well in 2015, a shoulder surgery cost Sandoval all but three games of the 2016 season, and more injuries (a knee sprain and an inner ear infection) followed in 2017.

Following his release from the Red Sox, Sandoval returned to the Giants on a minor league contract and got into 47 big league games in the rest of the 2017 season.  The next two years saw Sandoval play mostly in a part-time role against primarily right-handed pitching, and he regained some of his old form by hitting .259/.311/.466 with 23 homers in 548 PA in 2018-19.

Returning to the Giants on another minors contract in 2020, Sandoval was released that September and then signed by the Braves for one regular-season game and four PA over three playoff games.  Another minor league contract followed with Atlanta that offseason, and he hit .178/.302/.342 in what proved to be the final 86 PA of the Panda’s MLB career.  Sandoval was released after being dealt to Cleveland for Eddie Rosario at the 2021 trade deadline in what proved to be a critical deal for the Braves.  Rosario caught fire after the trade and won NLCS MVP honors en route to helping the Braves win the World Series, leading Sandoval to earn the fourth championship ring of his career.

Sandoval was one of five Giants players added to the team’s Wall of Fame last summer, and he’ll forever be a legend among San Francisco fans.  We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Sandoval on a tremendous career, and we wish him the best in retirement.