In a twist just before the start of spring training, the San Francisco Giants signed three-time World Series champion and former World Series MVP Pablo Sandoval as a non-roster invitee to the team’s camp in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Sandoval, 37, has been out of MLB since 2021 but is planning on making a comeback bid this spring. On Monday, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi offered a different reason for bringing in Sandoval, who is nicknamed “Kung Fu Panda.”
Zaidi joked to reporters that the club had to sign Sandoval because the Giants great was sending him too many workout videos, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area.
Farhan Zaidi on the Giants adding Pablo Sandoval to camp: “We had to sign Pablo because the workout videos he was sending me were taking up all the space on my phone.”
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) February 19, 2024
“We had to sign Pablo because the workout videos he was sending me were taking up all the space on my phone,” Zaidi amusingly said.
Classic.
In all seriousness, it does appear as if Sandoval has lost a great deal of weight, as evidenced by this video of him arriving to the team’s spring training site. Sandoval had been listed at 5’10’ and 268 pounds previously.
Lots of love for the return of the Panda ???? @KFP48 pic.twitter.com/6aUHdesQAq
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) February 19, 2024
Sandoval slashed .278/.330/.443 in 14 MLB seasons, 11 of which were spent with the Giants.
