Caught up with Joe Panik and asked about talk of the Giants possibly moving him from second base to third base if they choose to bring in a second baseman.

Not surprisingly, Panik is open to the idea. Remember, he made a smooth transition from short to second, learning the position in the Arizona Fall League and playing it in Double-A in 2013 and Triple-A in 2014 before his promotion to the Giants in June.

“You know what, my goal is to go out there and do what I can to play every day,” Panik said. “If it’s second base, that’s fine. If it’s third base, that’s fine. I’m here to play ball whether it’s second base, third base, first base or catcher. If they say, ‘Hey, Joe, we want you to go out and be the third baseman,’ I’ll bust my tail to do it.”

It hasn’t been easy finding a replacement for third baseman Pablo Sandoval. If the Giants are comfortable moving Panik to third, they could pursue someone to play second such as Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond, a year from free agency, or free agent Asdrubal Cabrera, who played most of his career in Cleveland but finished last season as the Nats’ second baseman.

I asked manager Bruce Bochy at the winter meetings about moving Panik to third, and he didn’t dismiss the idea.

“I wouldn’t say never. We had (Travis) Ishikawa in left field,” said Bochy, who gave Ishikawa his first three career starts in left field in the regular season’s final week, then used him there in the playoffs. “Would you have thought that? If you’d have asked me ‘never’ on him in left field in the World Series a couple of years ago, I probably would have said yes. But you just don’t know.”

Assistant GM Bobby Evans didn’t rule it out either but said the preference was leaving Panik at second, where he made the biggest defensive play of the World Series, a diving, backhanded grab in the third inning of Game 7 and glove-flip to shortstop Brandon Crawford to start a crucial double play.

Evans said he heard from the Cabrera camp that he preferred to stay on the middle of the diamond, but moving to third didn’t seem out of the question.

Panik hasn’t played third in pro ball. Still, he’s up for the task if called.

“That’s the way I’ve always been, even when making the transition from short to second,” he said.