Padres Join Sox, Giants In Serious Pursuit Of Sandoval

Yesterday was an active one for Pablo Sandoval chatter, and today is shaping up in like fashion. As his market continues to develop, we’ll keep tabs on the latest here:

• There’s very little separation between the current offers of the Giants, Red Sox and Padres, tweets Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. All three teams are in the five-year, $90-95MM range, while the Blue Jays, Cafardo hears, are wavering

Earlier Updates

• The Padres have joined the Red Sox and Giants as one of the most aggressive teams on Sandoval, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. While the White Sox and Blue Jays have interest they’re not believed to be as aggressive as the other three clubs. Heyman refers to the Padres as a “shocking” entrant in the race for a free agent of this caliber, and indeed, few pegged San Diego as a serious suitor for the Panda heading into the offseason.
• The Blue Jays do not have an offer out to Sandoval or anyone else, GM Alex Anthopoulos told reporters, including Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link). Neither does the team have plans to make any offers in the next 24 hours, he said. Prior reports have suggested that Toronto was lining up a bid for Sandoval.
• The Red Sox have not yet made Sandoval an offer, his brother and agent Michael Sandoval tells Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com (Twitter link).
• The Giants feel they are very much in the hunt for Sandoval’s services, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. “We’ve got every indication that we’re right in the middle of it,” said assistant GM Bobby Evans, who went on to say that he believes “the interest is sincere” and that he thinks the player’s affinity for his long-time club could play some role. Sandoval’s agent, Gustavo Vasquez, has requested that San Francisco submit its best offer, according to Evans.
• Evans also said in a radio appearance on KNBR today that he expects Sandoval to sign fairly quickly, possibly before Thanksgiving. (Via Alex Pavlovic of the Mercury News, on Twitter.) “I sense Pablo really edging towards trying to wrap this up,” said Evans.