Carroll, Panda and the Giants

Now on the tail end of a busy week of searching for ways to piece together a living, I’ve come to the following conclusion: Looking for work is more exhausting than actually working.

Unless, perhaps, you’re Brian Sabean and his front-office crew. With 13 arbitration-eligible players, eight free agents and holes in the roster a-plenty, they entered the offseason with perhaps the longest to-do list in the big leagues.

They’ve already addressed some of their issues, bringing back lefty relievers Javier Lopez and Jeremy Affeldt last week and acquiring outfielder Melky Cabrera this week by sending mercurial starter Jonathan Sanchez to Kansas City.

There’s still a ton of work to do, though, and among the issues is finding a reliable backup middle infielder.

As of now, Brandon Crawford is atop the depth chart at shortstop, Freddy Sanchez is No. 1 at second base (assuming he’s healthy), and Jeff Keppinger and Mike Fontenot, both among the arbitration-eligible Giants, are No. 2 at shortstop and second base, respectively.

Keppinger should be kept, in my opinion. Freddy hasn’t exactly proven to be a quick healer since he arrived via trade from Pittsburgh, and Keppinger is essentially Freddy Light. He can do everything a healthy Freddy does, just not quite as well.

Fontenot? Eh. He’s a non-tender in my book. Nice little scrapper, but if Crawford doesn’t quite work out, you simply can’t go with Fontenot for the long haul. We’ve seen that movie before. He gets exposed after a week or two, the holes in his swing pried open with the Jaws of Lively Fastballs.

So the need for a reliable backup shortstop should be prioritized — unless, of course, Sabean pulls off a stunner and reels in Jimmy Rollins.

This is what has me thinking about Jamey Carroll, whose name kept popping up on my Twitter feed (@BigUrbSports) this week as a possible “get” for the Giants.

My thoughts as I read the tweets?

Carroll had a nice year for the Dodgers, and he’d be a nice fit as a backup and in the clubhouse, but he made $1.8 million last season, he’s going to be 38 by the time next season starts, and word is he wants more than one year. Under those terms, no thanks. A year and a mil? Bring him on.

On Friday, though, the Twins signed Carroll to a two-year deal said to be worth about $7 million. Wow. If Jamey Carroll is worth $3.5 million, the Twins have scouts that see something I clearly do not.  

Moving on, another priority for the Giants is keeping Pablo Sandoval healthy, and they might want to add “keeping him safe” to the mix. 

While on tour in Taiwan with a Giants manager Bruce Bochy and a group of MLB “all-stars,” the Panda denied having put on some of the pounds he lost last winter, but don’t buy that for a second.

There’s no question he put on weight. It’s undeniable.

But he knows how to get it off, and he’s already working on it at the same Phoenix-area facility that transformed his body and career last offseason. That’s great news, because the Giants absolutely need him at his best again in 2012.

Not-so-great news is that he’s still considering a trip to his native Venezuela for some winter ball. If I’m the Giants, I strongly urge him to reconsider, and this where “keeping him safe” enters the equation.

Or did you miss the terrifying story about Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos being kidnapped from outside his home in Venezuela this week? People with big money are frequent targets of such crimes in that country; it’s why many Venezuelan-born players make their offseason homes in the U.S.

Granted, Sandoval would be there for only a week or two, and he’s a considerably bigger star than Ramos. If he requested national security he’d probably get it. But why take the chance?

That’s it for today, folks. There’s still some daylight left, so there’s still time to hustle for gigs.