Zolak & Bertrand: Red Sox Send Right Message By Benching Sandoval
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Panda Watch is over for the Red Sox.
Manager John Farrell announced Thursday that Travis Shaw will be the team's Opening Day third baseman over Pablo Sandoval.
Zolak & Bertrand discussed the decision to start Thursday's show, and neither are surprised by the move.
"They're different this year," Zolak said of the Red Sox' decision-making process. "This tells you that they took into account the entire spring; that Travis Shaw earned this spot because of how he played the entire spring."
Beetle isn't sold on Shaw as an everyday third baseman and doesn't think the move is permanent, but he's happy the team is finally sending the right message to their highly paid veteran players.
"Sandoval isn't going to be on the bench for the entire year. A month or six weeks from now, it could be easily be Sandoval with the job back and there for the rest of the year. I think that will happen, sooner rather than later, but this is the right message no matter how long it lasts," he said. "If you want to get the players' attention on this and prove to them that things are really different now and they need to act accordingly, what better way to prove this isn't the same team anymore?
"If this pisses off the veterans, the few that didn't want Sandoval to lose his job, good," said Beetle. "I don't know if it's going to work out, but I love the move."