I want to be tactful here: Pablo Sandoval is too short. His weight of about 270 would be fine if he were 7 feet tall. So he needs to grow 13 inches or lose 50 pounds.
San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval warms up before taking his position on the diamond against the Colorado Rockies in the first inning of a baseball game in Denver on Sunday, May 19, 2013. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
David Zalubowski/Associated PressI'm no physicist, although my wife sometimes calls me Einstein, but Sandoval's excess weight surely is a factor in the stress-fracture-type injury of his foot.
And it's not merely this injury. The extra bulk is turning a potential Hall of Fame player into simply a guy. Sandoval is taking his team's name too literally.
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Larry Baer, the Giants' main man, said Monday in a radio interview with 95.7 The Game that the club won't give Sandoval a weight mandate.
Too bad, because that's exactly what it should do, for Sandoval's good and the team's. Enough already with the coddling, enabling and hand-wringing.
"He's an adult," Baer said.
Exactly. So why not treat him like an adult who has responsibilities to his team and to his contract?
The Giants should tell Sandoval how much they love him and appreciate his talent and spirit, and how they believe he can be the soul of their team for the next decade, but that they might trade his rear ASAP.
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"If you want to stay here," the Giants should tell Sandoval, "we need to see your commitment to the Giants and to yourself."
Give Sandoval weight markers. He must lose 3 pounds per week for the rest of this season. If he fails a weigh-in, the Giants bench him and attempt to trade him.
Three pounds per week for 15 weeks - that's 45 pounds by the playoffs. Sandoval still would be overweight, but he'd be headed in the right direction and helping the team.
Then put him on a monitored maintenance program for the offseason and into next season, and build the regimen into any future contract.
By the end of this season, the Giants would have a much clearer picture of whether Panda is in their future, and vice versa.
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Sandoval is under contract through next season. Now is the time to find out where he stands.
Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: sostler@sfchronicle.com
