Francisco Cordero has some company on the “Not In The Best Shape Of His Life” team, apparently.
Here’s what manager Dusty Baker told Mark Sheldon of MLB.com about Juan Francisco’s calf injury and overall status in Reds camp:
He’s got time but he’s behind. Part of that is if he had rehabbed properly in the winter time. Part of that is he came into camp as one of the few guys overweight. The guys that came in ready, I can’t shelve them because he didn’t. I’m trying him ready the best I can. We need him. ... Then he’s got to stop eating.
Sheldon says Francisco is about 10-12 pounds overweight, so “he’s got stop eating” is relatively sound advice.
And it’s sort of a weird coincidence that two of the few guys not to be in supposedly great shape upon arriving at spring training have “Francisco” in their name. Liriano, Cervelli, Rodriguez, Frank, and Ben better count calories for the rest of the month just to be safe.