Pablo Sandoval's Former Trainer Says He Needs Babysitter, Compares Eating to Alcoholism

Pablo Sandoval has had a rough go of it in his Red Sox tenure. He showed up to Spring Training this year out of shape, notably destroyed his belt, and was sent to the 15-day DL for what Yahoo’s Jeff Passan reports could be more of an indefinite edict to improve his conditioning than actual injury. Sandoval is still owed over $75 million on his contract, so the Red Sox might be stuck with him.

Sandoval’s ex-trainer, Ethan Benning spoke to the Boston Herald about his former client:

"“I care about him greatly,” said Banning, who lost touch with Sandoval after the 2011-12 offseason. “But it’s a tough love. He needs to be smart enough to say there’s a problem. 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. He’s got to address that. “He’s proven to me and shown consistently that he’s got to have somebody like me holding his hand doing that. And it’s not an exercise thing, it’s an eating thing. Obviously exercise is an important factor in it, a very important factor, but eating is going to be the component that needs to be managed and monitored. We had a chef on staff that cooked all his meals.”"

Benning recalled a time where Sandoval went home to Venezuela for 21 days over Christmas, and gained as many pounds. He felt that Sandoval could trim down from his current weight, because he’s done so before, but reiterated that it would have to be in conjunction with a “babysitter” type figure.

[H/T Big League Stew]