PABLO WON’T DISH
Sandoval keeps quiet on diet
BUCKLEY: How will Farrell manage in 2017?
FORT MYERS — He’s on a talk-free diet.
Pablo Sandoval has no problem sharing videos on social media to prove just how hard he’s worked.
“I just want to keep the fans updated (about) what I was doing,” he said yesterday.
No videos of dinner time, though. What he eats apparently is off limits.
Everyone knew the guy could lose weight and exercise if he applied himself. The Red Sox third baseman did that in his San Francisco Giants days.
But what he’s eating now, and how he’s changed his diet, seems to be a sensitive topic.
“I got a program. I got a program, it’s all included,” Sandoval said. “So I don’t worry about that. I got a program, it’s all included. I’m going to continue to keep doing my program. So that’s my main goal.” Well, that’s descriptive. Maybe there are foods he likes that have been taken away. Let’s start there.
“What do you want me to say it is?” Sandoval said. “I don’t miss anything, man. I don’t miss anything.”
The first man on earth to never miss anything while dieting, ladies and gentlemen. How about ice cream? Everyone likes ice cream. Can you still eat ice cream?
“I don’t want to tell you about my secrets,” he said.
Cookies and cream now is proprietary information.
Why in the world would food be a secret?
“No,” Sandoval said. “Everything.”
Every bit of food the Sox third baseman eats is a secret. This makes a lot of sense.
“Everything,” Sandoval said. “Why do you want me to tell you everything I do?”
There’s nothing more American than baseball, apple pie and diets. Sandoval’s an unrelatable figure, making a ton of money while being out of shape for the past two years. But weight loss, or at least the attempt at it, average Joes can understand.
Now, Sandoval has no obligation to be relatable. Fans won’t accept him unless he plays well, anyway. But letting people in on his calorie-control effort wouldn’t be a bad olive branch.
“But I don’t want to tell them what I’m going to do,” Sandoval said. “It’s my program.”
A big, secret program. Scott Lauber of ESPN.com reported Sandoval put his new wife, Yulimar, in charge of his lowcarb diet, and that she worked with a nutritionist.
Perhaps it’s Red Sox nutritionist Glen Tobias, formerly of the New York Jets and hired ahead of this season, who is handling the matter.
Manager John Farrell said someone has been overseeing Sandoval.
“That’s part of our medical staff,” Farrell said, declining to name the person. “We have our nutritionist.”
The team’s previous nutritionist, Nancy Clark, as well as a Red Sox source said she left the club under amicable conditions that were unrelated to Sandoval.
“The person that hired me left, and new people bring in new people,” said Clark, who has a private practice in Newton Highlands. “I did it for three years, and I’m very glad to have my summers back.
“Pablo actually, when he was down in Fort Myers, he worked with another dietician who speaks Spanish and lives near Miami, and she did a lot of work with him.
“He was a hard worker,” Clark added. “He spent this past year really getting things together. I mean he really wants to succeed. And he wants to prove himself, and that’s what he was saying. ... He’s got a work ethic. I wish him the best.”
Overeating, which Sandoval’s former trainer Ethan Banning has said was the third baseman’s pitfall, is no small concern. Psychology comes into play.
“He’s worked on his allaround,” Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said when asked about dieting. “He’s worked on nutrition, he’s worked on conditioning, he’s worked on mental, he’s worked on a lot of different parts of the whole thing to make it work. But I think for him, it’s important to tackle all aspects of it, not just the conditioning end of it.”
Farrell noted the importance of a diet, too.
“I think if you just use the basic adage more out than more in, he’s in the positive column,” Farrell said. “But it’s much more detailed than that. There’s been a combination of the work he’s put in, the effort he’s put in, and I guess a more scientific approach to his diet and what works best for him.”
Unless Sandoval’s eating out of a test tube, science seems a stretch.
OK, let’s make it real simple: Is your diet different than it’s ever been before?
“No comment,” Sandoval said.
Seems salty.