Pablo Sandoval's weight is already the talk of spring training

The annual spring training tradition known as "Pablo Sandoval reports to camp day" came early this year. The Boston Red Sox third baseman took part in the club's first official workout Sunday and, as usual, his weight became the focus of the conversation.

Shortly after workouts began, the following picture from the Boston Globe started to make the rounds.

	Jared Carrabis @Jared_Carrabis
Welp. Here it is. Via the @BostonGlobe, the picture that everyone's going to be talking about tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/FbWPrm8DfH 1:05 PM - 21 Feb 2016

 

Not surprisingly, the Globe ran with that picture for its front page Monday morning. The headline also focuses on Sandoval's weight.

 

	Pete Abraham @PeteAbe
Today's @BGlobeSports: pic.twitter.com/w6l2ghm0aS 4:05 AM - 22 Feb 2016

The issue extends past the picture, though. Apparently, there's some confusion over whether the Red Sox asked Sandoval to drop weight during the offseason.

Sandoval told the Boston Globe that the team did not ask him to lose weight during the offseason, but the Globe cites instances where team executives, as well as interim manager Terry Lovullo made suggesting that wasn't the case.

Manager John Farrell was even sent to check on Sandoval in January, and he admitted the third baseman was in better shape a few months ago.

Said Farrell: “I can’t tell you if he got on the scale or not. I can tell you that visiting him in January, it looked like he was in better condition. I will say when we met with every player at the end of last season, each player was given a specific plan, a workout routine.”

According to Farrell, Sandoval was not told a specific number of pounds to lose, unlike Ramirez was.

“We outlined he needed to come back in better condition. Along with that you anticipate the potential for weight to be dropped is there. There wasn’t a specific number given,” Farrell said.

Some of the concern may be overblown, though. Sandoval does seem thinner than he was at the end of last season, according to the Globe. In fact, he looks as though he's roughly the same weight as he was last spring.

Perhaps that's not encouraging considering his struggles in 2015. In his first season with the Red Sox, Sandoval hit just .245/.292/.366 over 505 plate appearances. Those numbers should improve in 2016 regardless of Sandoval's weight. It's just tough to think a player with his history will be that bad again.

Aside from last season, Sandoval's has typically performed well despite being heavier than most third baseman. But as he ages, his weight likely becomes a bigger concern. On top of that, Sandoval has already started to experience some decline in his numbers.

Sandoval can easily put the doubters to rest if he performs like his old self, but that won't be possible until the regular season begins. Until then, it looks like we're in for another month of daily Sandoval conditioning updates.