In case you live under a rock (in terms of Sox news), the most prominent storyline this Spring Training has been the dilemma at third base between the 95 million dollar man Pablo Sandoval and rising star Travis Shaw. Shaw had one of the hottest springs in the entire league while Sandoval, well, not so much. This morning manager John Farrell, showing off his new style, pulled a quick trigger based on performance. Travis Shaw will begin the year at third base and Sandoval? On the bench. Sandoval hasn’t had a great attitude in the past year but said to the Boston Herald of this move, “it’s the right decision to help the team win.”

I almost cried tears of joy when I saw this. The Herald Sports notification popped up on my phone and I couldn’t believe it at first. But it truly is the right decision in my opinion. What makes it hard to believe is that Sandoval will be making $17 million this year and Shaw? $507,000. Sure people are going to complain and whine about wasted money and how terrible this all is but Farrell, Dombrowski and Hazen are doing all they can to put this team in a position to win with the cards Cherington left behind. I’ve said it in basically every other blog but Shaw deserves this. Huge congratulations to him. He put in the work and showed results while Sandoval made errors and failed to lose weight, or at least failed to make it look like he did to get the media off of his back.

With all of this being said, this situation is FAR from over. Shaw is going to have immense pressure on him. If he doesn’t carry over his spring performance into the first few weeks of the season, this pot could boil over once again. Farrell is 1/1 so far in my book but monitoring this situation early in the season is his next true test. Great move on his part especially being on the hot seat he’s on. Here’s a glimpse of the Sox lineup today against the Twins in Florida, which seems to be what we’re going to see in Cleveland on Monday (Obviously with Price instead of Buch). Holt is going to get the nod in left but it seems Brock and Chris Young will have a rotation going out there, especially with Young’s success against lefties.

An interesting note is that the Padres have flashed interest in Sandoval in exchange for a pitcher like James Shields who could immensely help the Sox (speculation). How that all plays out with Sandoval on the bench will be interesting as some people have already said it’s a stupid move to bench him while we should be showcasing him. Here’s my response to that: You can’t showcase a liability of a player when your goal is to win the World Series; Every game matters. In other good news, Carson Smith was back throwing today at the Fort. Hopefully he gets back as quick and as healthy as possible so the bullpen isn’t a repeat of last year.

If you’re like me, you can take a deep breath for now because all of the complaining and worrying has paid off. Shaw is our starting third baseman and all is right in the world. Here’s to seeing 20 balls sail into the bullpen at Fenway this season off of his bat. Four more days until Opening Day and I couldn’t be more excited. Go Sox.