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Giants Exec Shares Perfect Reason Why Team Signed Pablo Sandoval

Clearly, the San Francisco Giants had no choice but to bring in Sandoval.

Tim Capurso

Giants Exec Shares Perfect Reason Why Team Signed Pablo Sandoval
Giants Exec Shares Perfect Reason Why Team Signed Pablo Sandoval /
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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. 

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“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.

Sandoval slashed .278/.330/.443 in 14 MLB seasons, 11 of which were spent with the Giants. 

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Tim Capurso
TIM CAPURSO

Tim Capurso is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in November 2023, he wrote for RotoBaller and ClutchPoints, where he was the lead editor for MLB, college football and NFL coverage. A lifelong Yankees and Giants fan, Capurso grew up just outside New York City and now lives near Philadelphia. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading, exercising and spending time with his family, including his three-legged cat Willow, who, unfortunately, is an Eagles fan.

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