Pablo Sandoval regrets leaving Giants for Red Sox in 2014

Pandas can apparently have regrets as well.

Former All-Star slugger Pablo Sandoval spoke this week in a GQ interview and opened up about one big regret that he has from his MLB career — leaving the San Francisco Giants for the Boston Red Sox in 2014.

“I should have stayed, I know,” said Sandoval in the interview. “I learned my lesson. But I’m happy I went through it, man, because I kept my eyes open and learned a lot of things.”

Sandoval, now 35, was the man in San Francisco for many years. He made his MLB debut for the Giants in 2008 and had a hand in three World Series titles for the team in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Sandoval also made two All-Star teams in San Francisco and was the World Series MVP in 2012. But he left after the 2014 season to sign a five-year, $90M deal with the Red Sox. There, Sandoval ended up fizzling, and he was released by Boston midway through the third season.

In retrospect, you can’t really fault Sandoval for chasing the bag, particularly since he had certain personal issues that hampered his pro career. Sandoval would eventually get his happy ending too, returning to the Giants for four more seasons from 2017-20.

These days, Sandoval is still playing in the Mexican League and recently went viral for squashing an unfortunate catcher like a bug. Thus, we can probably say that everything worked out just fine for the Kung Fu Panda.