When Sandoval arrived at spring training, a photo of his gut made its way across Twitter, including one of it being given a crying Jordan face. The conversation continued into the regular season when his belt popped off during a game and the next day a rival fan brought a prop belt to tease him.

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It all may have seemed funny at the time, but a few recent stories have made people realize there may be something deeper to this than Sandoval just being big.

“He needs to be smart enough to say there’s a problem," Sandoval’s former trainer Ethan Banning recently told the Boston Herald. “It’s like the alcoholic that won’t admit he’s an alcoholic: well, you can’t address that you’re an alcoholic if you don’t ever admit there’s a problem. He’s got to address that.”

In addition, Sandoval needs a support system. It sounds like he had somewhat of one in San Francisco as a member of the Giants. Banning was with him for a few of those seasons, and the team went to extreme measures to try and prevent him from overeating.

Here’s what Comcast Sports Net’s Sean McAdam said on “Toucher and Rich” Friday:

When most people see “eating disorder” they think of bulimia or anorexia, but there are disorders for overeating as well. One is called binge eating disorder (BED). According to WebMD, “people with BED compulsively eat large amounts of food in a short amount of time and feel guilt or shame afterward. And they do so often: at least once a week over a period of at least 3 months.”

And I’ll tell you another anecdote. This is how concerned the Giants were when he played for them … they would make special arrangements at the hotel the Giants were staying in to not allow him to order room service. They would tell the front desk management, “If he calls down for room service at night after games, do not send anything to this room.” They went to great measures to try to cut down on those eating binges, and it would only work for a time because he would find someplace to get food.

That description would fall in line with what Banning told the Herald — Sandoval once gained 21 pounds in 21 days.

Considering Sandoval is a professional athlete, the Red Sox have a right to expect Sandoval maintain his weight at a playable level. But if he does have a disorder, the team should help him through it and not just force him to sit out until he gets his weight in check, as Yahoo Sports reported is the case.

Banning told the Herald that Sandoval feels “embarrassed right now” because of how everything has unfolded. Ultimately it’s up to him to get better, but if he has support along the way then perhaps he and the team can work through this together and salvage the remaining $75 million on his contract.