Pablo Sandoval Is Reportedly Struggling with an Eating Addiction
After a somewhat disappointing first season with the Red Sox, Pablo Sandoval is finding it even tougher in 2016. He lost his starting third-base job after showing up to spring training overweight, and his former fitness coach claims to have the answer: he has an eating addiction.
"He needs to be smart enough to say there's a problem," said Ethan Banning, owner of Triple Threat Performance in Phoenix. "It's like the alcoholic that won't admit he's an alcoholic: well, you can't address that you're an alcoholic if you don't ever admit there's a problem."
It's apparently a longstanding issue for Sandoval, whom Banning says needs a "babysitter" to keep his diet in check. Upon returning home to Venezuela in 2011, he reportedly gained 21 pounds in 21 days. Banning had to smuggle him into his training complex to keep the Giants-Sandoval's then-employer-from finding this out until he could get the weight off. That effort paid off: the Giants offered him a 3-year, $17 million contract the next off-season, and he landed a big time new deal with the Red Sox for $95 million over five years after that.
It looks like his issues have returned, though, which might explain why his belt went down for the count when he took a particularly big cut earlier this week.
It's definitely in the interests of the Red Sox to get the man back on track, though. After all, they gave him all that money because he can do things like this:
[H/T: ESPN]
