5:17pm: The team update does have some bad news: Sale has received a platelet-rich plasma treatment and will be shut down for at least six weeks. He’ll be reevaluated at that time.
Whether there’s any possibility of Sale appearing in the postseason isn’t known. But with less than six weeks to go before the end of the regular season, it’s now certain he will not be able to help the club make a last-ditch run at sneaking into Wild Card position.
The update doesn’t fill in any blanks regarding the underlying issues in the joint. But given the course of treatment, it seems reasonable to presume that the medical team has identified something beyond inflammation alone.
4:04pm: If you’re a Red Sox fan, you may now safely exhale. Boston lefty Chris Sale will not require Tommy John surgery, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Precisely what is wrong with Sale’s elbow isn’t yet clear. But it seems that a visit to Dr. James Andrews did not reveal anything beyond the inflammation that initially sent the southpaw to the injured list.
We’ll keep updating the situation as further information emerges. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe notes (via Twitter) that the club is preparing to release a statement on the topic of Sale’s health.
I legit couldn’t sleep last night when I heard about this. Deep breath.
Ridiculous
While it’s a little concerning they have no clue what’s wrong, certainly it’s great to hear surgery isn’t required. I’d like to hear what someone other than Abraham has to say about it.
Only Tommy John surgery has been ruled out. Hopefully they’ll rule out him needing any type of surgery.
Honestly even Tommy John hasn’t actually been ruled out. Seems like they’re saying he’s not going to surgery now. But if conservative treatments fail who knows
BaseballAllDay that’s what I was thinking…. Waiting 6 weeks after this injection to see if things improve. If he has Tommy John surgery in six weeks or today he’ll still miss the entire season next year so he’s not out of the woods yet.
smh………
*safely exhales*
*looks at AL wild card standings*
*stops breathing
Done for the season, is my guess.
How are the Red Sox going to retool so they can compete next year?
They need to shut him down if he doesn’t need surgery let him fully recover.
yeah better worry about next year at this point. as bad as missing the playoffs looks after winning the world series, the fact that they did in fact win it should at least keep everyone’s jobs safe.
Make him a closer. Save five years of shelf life like Smoltz did.
So you are okay with a $30MM a year closer?
Sure, let’s pay $30 million per year to a guy that will pitch only 60 innings.
And then let’s give another pitcher $30 million per year to replace Sale in the starting rotation.
Next.
As opposed to paying him 30mil a year not to pitch when he’s hurt?
they’ll have two closers now along side Eovaldi. At least both are better than Kimbrel
It’s not like they HAVE to sign a $30mil pitcher to replace Sale. Naturally Dombrowski will feel the need, but it doesn’t need to be done.
This is their retooling. Gonna shut Price down next and both will be ready for spring
When someone gets platelet injections in their elbow it almost always means they have a tear in their elbow of some sort. The injections usually don’t work and it may just prolong the inevitable. So instead of having him back in 2021 it may be 2022
Red Sox should have waited until after the season to resign him for this very reason.
Totally agree. Guy can’t pitch a whole season.
as of now, he has 25 starts, which is the lowest he’s had since he became a starter. full season or not, he’s been infinately more durable then quite a few guys.
@Dark those numbers were declining . What would it have hurt to have waited at least until mid season.
Boston strong.
Not sure why the Sox rushed the extension. Had they offered him an extension now or in the offseason Boston would have had a lot of leverage . Had sale gone out and pitched at an elite level I dont think he would have recieved a contract much larger than the extension he signed .
He’ll, he wouldn’t get half what he got now. No one wants to deal with paying a guy a lot whose getting platelet injections. That means there is a tear of some sort
What did they lose last year? Three postseason games? And Sale wasn’t 100%. They’ll be fine.
Lets be honest “NATION” i can’t be the only one, who no matter what the out come of his meeting with Andrews was, believed ,that he ever was going to pitch again this year???
The less invasive the treatment the better. Hopefully he’s one of those players that responds well to the PRP regimen.
I think it’s just a low-risk look and see if it works. Tommy John now or Tommy John at the end of the year makes no difference he’ll miss all of next season in any case.
Sounds like it could be a partial tear. Doesn’t always require surgery and in his case makes sense to go this route since if he did surgery 2020 would be a wash whether done now or later.
Yeah what’s an extra year? Which is exactly what the injections may do. They may mask it until May of next yr and then boom. It’s rarely works
Isn’t the plasma treatment what Ohtani got before the TJ surgery?
Yes! This is not Sale’s first experience with elbow inflammation while this one seems a little more serious with being shut down for the rest of the season.
From my understanding Sale just visited Dr. Andrews where he was told that he did not need Tommy John surgery without having a MRI done to see if there was structural damage, got an injection in his elbow then was shut down for the rest of the year and going to be re-examine in six weeks so don’t count out Tommy John surgery just yet.
Just putting off the inevitable.
There was an MRI done just recently and the MRI showed some changes in the MRI done in Spring. They had Andrews evaluate and test and read the MRI to make sure. In Sales case it appears that the just did the Plate-rich plasma injection to help with the inflammation. Is it possible that he still needs TJ yes it’s possible but the news is way better then first expected. Lots of pitchers have gone through this injection and have avoided Tommy John. I believe that they New with Ohtani he had a partial tear with Sale it doesn’t sound as if that is the case. They will re-evaluate after the 6 weeks and the inflammation has gone down. It is a concern though.
Yeah I know it’s worked for some patients but I’m not sure how much data there is behind the PRP. Worth a shot but I wouldn’t let out that sigh of relief until he picks up a ball again in 6 weeks and sees how the arm feels. The inflammation might just need time but he’s nowhere near out of the woods. I think regardless I’d start to be a little worried about the contract if I were Boston. He’s a great pitcher when he’s healthy no doubt but that health has been a question before and is even a bigger questions now.
When someone gets platelet injections in their elbow it almost always means they have a tear in their elbow of some sort. The injections usually don’t work and it may just prolong the inevitable. So instead of having him back in 2021 it may be 2022.
Sorry to hear about Chris Sale. Watched the guy pitch a lot when he was with the White Sox. Would only go to a couple of White Sox games a year and it was to watch Chis Sale. Hopefully he comes back healthy next season for the BoSox.
Man too bad. Thought he had a chance to do something. Special in playoffs. Still think they shoud go for it and make a august trade lots of arms that thrown good. Win it again. Lol. Come on folks let’s get a movement fore them.
Yeah but maybe not a teair keep positive man
Theres too much unknown here. Didnt Otani get the same thing trying to avoid it? I still think it’s a good shot he has it.
Yes, Ohtani, Garret Richards, and many others have had this time wasting injection. The injections usually don’t work and it may just prolong the inevitable.
Appearing for who in the postseason?!?
Sale plays for the Red Sox. Six and a half out of the wild card. It’s August 19th that’s a month and a half left in the season.
I’m a Sale fan, but Red Sox should have let him test free agency at end of year.
The way he throws is not normal, and his frame has always screamed “I’m gonna break down sometime.”
Hopefully he is fine, but this isn’t the first time he has worn down by end of season and needed rest.
Letting a guy Test free agency often puts bitterness between the team and the player. See Jon Lester. “They didn’t want to sign me before so I’m going somewhere else.”
The team couldn’t afford another Lester like situation.
It also helps a guy pitch motivated to get paid, and if he left he would have left with a ton of mileage and his best years behind him.
There’s no problem with Chris Sale being motivated. He is a stand-up guy and there’s no problem there. This guy goes all out all the time.
“The team couldn’t afford another Lester like situation.
Isn’t that the problem? The owners realized they made a major mistake with Lester and were determined to avoid making a similar one that they didn’t do their homework on Sale.
In 2017, Sale won 4 and lost 4 in 11 starts with a 4.09 ERA from Aug 1 through the end of the season. In 2018, he had a no decision on Jul 27, didn’t pitch again until Aug 12 when he won, and then was out until Sep 11 when he had four no decisions (12.0 IP) for the rest of the season. And in two years of post-season pitching with the Red Sox, he was 1-2 with a 5.76 ERA….so, in March 2019, they gave him a rather large salary extension, only to find his injury continuing.
The Red Sox have a long history of letting their star players walk – Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Mo Vaughn, Jon Lester, Johnny Damon, Jacoby Ellsbury (which was the right move), etc. None had good things to say about the front office.
People said the same thing about Scherzer. Pitchers will always be a crapshoot!
I’m just going to leave this right here:
Scissorhands.
That’s all.
Everyone seems to be saying that there’s a chance he ends up needing TJ — are there reports that it’s in fact his UCL that’s damaged?
Pure speculation probably…but isn’t that how these things always seem to go?
It is def speculation but he did also go to a doctor famous for TJ surgery with elbow complaints… and the bow the PRP kinda adds fuel to that fire
When someone gets platelet injections in their elbow it almost always means they have a tear in their elbow of some sort. The injections usually don’t work and it may just prolong the inevitable. So instead of having him back in 2021 it may be 2022
Good news for Red Sox fans, Sale won’t need TJ surgery until May!
Platelet injections almost never works and it just prolongs the inevitable. Hardly good news at all. If anything it may take even longer to have Sale look like Sale again.
How many times are you going to repeat this same tired post in this thread? No one has said anything about Sale having a UCL tear, partial or otherwise. You are saying that like you know anything.
You don’t get PRP injections in your elbow because of anything but a partial tear at minimum. Please find another case where an MLB pitcher didn’t have at minimum a partial tear in their elbow and received PRP. I’ve repeated it a lot because the Red Sox obviously aren’t being transparent, and hiding he truth.
That’s literally not true at all:
Doctors have used PRP injections to treat chronic tendon problems, such as tennis elbow, Achilles tendonitis at the ankle, and jumper’s knee, or pain in the patellar tendon in the knee. Acute injuries: Doctors have used PRP injections to treat acute sports injuries, such as pulled hamstring muscles or knee sprains.
I said IN A Pitchers Elbow!!! Don’t bring up nonsense about jumpers knees. Find me ONE just One.
Ok Bush, Tanaka, Strasburg, Salazar even though Salazar ended up getting shoulder surgery and that is just off the top of my head. So if you are going to spout nonsense be prepared to be called out on it.
Also there are quite a few pitchers that did PRP and staved off Tommy John for years before needing it as well.
Tanaka for sure had a slight tear in his elbow. Yes he’s fought off the Tommy John surgery but he was never the same since the injury. He’s been good at times, but never great like he was before being hurt. My whole point is that PRP is used when there’s a slight tear. Sometimes very small.
That is true. Usually they aren’t the same pitcher though and usually end up getting the surgery that would have made them right eventually, but pitched mediocre and prolonged it. Like Garret Richards and Ohtani just last year.
Strasburg seems just fine to me.
The point I’m trying to make is that PRP has definitely helped stave off elbow surgeries for many years on quite a few people so it is t unheard of. If the Red Sox can get 3 or 4 years out of this procedure before Sale eventually needs surgery I’ll call that a win.
I’m not disagreeing with that at all. But the issue is you interjected about something that wasn’t even being argued about. I simply was saying that if a MLB pitcher goes through PRP injections then they have at minimal a slight tear in their UCL. There are all kinds of variations of that, but my that was my original point not that it couldn’t help him get a few yrs before surgery. I do hope Sale does well and it works out. Strasburg was coming off Tommy John a couple years prior to his PRP injections and it was doubtful that he’d need another surgery so fast so his injection was about helping the new ligament. It’s a different comparison. There does seem to be much more precedent of it not working well though and the player ends up getting TJ at some point relatively soon.
Salazar at a minimum does not have a partial year in the ligament and was given PRP for inflammation only. It is not unheard of not saying Sale doesn’t have a partial year but is possible he is dealing with a lot of inflammation only and that is why he got PRP we just don’t know and to speculate is just that speculation.
So the only case we have for my point is Salazar? The biggest injury dude there is in MLB? I rest my case
I’m not trying to be a jerk, but I’d put a 95% chance on that Sale has some sort of ligament damage. The math adds up.
Sale said before the game he was relieved because and I quote “ Dr. Andrews didn’t detect any ligament damage and just the inflammation in that the previous MRI showed two days before”. Now maybe Sale is covering it up but we have to at least believe there’s a pretty chance of no ligament damage unless you believe in conspiracy theory’s.
Just following history I do believe it is more than inflammation. So does the writer of this article in his last update check it out above: “But given the course of treatment, it seems reasonable to presume that the medical team has identified something beyond inflammation alone”. So maybe we have a first non injured ligament PRP pitcher elbow treatment. I have serious doubts though. But whatever maybe Sale will change history.
No the article makes it sound like this is what Dr. Andrews told Sale no structural damage just inflammation. The writer is just quoting what Sale was told by Dr. Andrews. Whether Sale is just saying that and there is something structural maybe but there’s at least a chance it’s just inflammation if that is truly what Andrews said to Sale.
They are delaying TJ until after the season to see if the Red Sox can make the playoffs.
The highs for 2019 is that Rafael Devers, Christian Vazquez and Eduardo Rodriguez have emerged while 1B Michael Chavis and 2B Marco Hernandez could take over next season.
I, as YF….. in happy he’s ok. This is no only baseball! It’s about one of the best in the game and we need to keep it that way
RS are out of it this year anyway, maybe not mathematically but the front office has already mailed this one in. My predictions: 1. DD will be gone within a few weeks. 2. Cora will stay but LeVangie and a few other coaches will be cut loose. 3. Price will not likely pitch more than 2 to 3 games for remainder of year with limited innings (just enough to keep the fans interested). 4. JD will opt out at end of season but will regret it. 5. Eovaldi will be back on the IL within the next few weeks until end of season. 6. Porcello will sign with the Yankees in the off season.
Not so sure JD will opt out. Porcello will probably sign a one year deal with the A’s for $10m plus incentives where he’ll have a career year and they’ll spin him off at the trade deadline.
The elbow of Sales has probably “flamed out.” Even though there isn’t any indication that he will need TJ surgery, the body or the limb has rebelled and said – enough is enough! Sales best days are now behind him.
Yeah, you sound like a real medical expert.
Sale was hitting 98 and pitching very well his last 2 starts. Doesn’t sound like a guy in decline.
his velocity on all his pitches has been a rollercoaster this year.
this makes sense. sale’s velocity has been down all year. with his pitching motion it’s likely he will be out even in the playoffs. didnt tanaka get these same injections and opt out of tommy john surgery meaning it was still an option? im guessing the same with sale.
From a angels fan, Andrew Heaney did the same thing, and ended up with tj. Garrett richards did it and lasted 6 month’s. Tanaka is the only one that I can think of that was somewhat successful
Those guys had tears in their ligament. Sale has said he doesn’t have a tear.