Photo of slimmed-down Pablo Sandoval emerges in offseason again

They’ve become about as reliable as a photo of Bigfoot, but they appear far more often. Yes, we’re talking about offseason photos of Boston Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval. These photos are usually as blurry as a picture of Bigfoot, but they are scrutinized just as much.

The 2016 offseason is no different. As if on cue, a glorious image of slimmed-down Sandoval emerged Tuesday morning.

There he is. That’s Pablo Sandoval, and he appears to be in great shape. And, hey, that’s a great thing for the Red Sox, right? After conditioning troubles and injuries ruined last season, it’s great to see Sandoval getting in shape in time for 2017.

With Sandoval, though, we know it’s not that easy. This is now approximately the millionth offseason in which we’ve seen promising reports about his weight. It’s always the same story, too. In the offseason, he looks tremendous. If this sounds familiar, it should. We went through the exact same thing last year.

For a while, you start to see promising reports. Sandoval is in great shape and ready to dominate for the Red Sox. Sandoval is motivated and is going to return to All-Star form.

Then, spring training rolls around and Sandoval looks like all he did was eat ice cream during the offseason. This is precisely what happened after his promising 2016 offseason weight loss. And few can forget the picture of Sandoval that emerged at his first spring with the Red Sox in 2015.

Given all that, we can’t blame Red Sox fans for approaching this one with some skepticism.

The timing of this picture is also … curious. It emerged shortly after the Red Sox traded third baseman Travis Shaw to the Milwaukee Brewers in a deal for Tyler Thornburg. With Shaw out of the picture, it looks like Sandoval has the inside track at winning the third base job.

Is this a case where the Red Sox saw the picture and felt more comfortable about making the deal, or did it conveniently leak so fans would talk themselves into Sandoval returning to the starting lineup? We won’t ever know the answer, but feel free to speculate wildly.

If Sandoval wants to figure out a way to keep his weight off throughout the entire offseason, he might want to contact new teammate Chris Sale. Sale, who was traded to Boston on Tuesday, weighs roughly 120 pounds soaking wet, and still manages to dominate on the field. At the very least, pictures of the two of them together during camp should be entertaining.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik