Red Sox ace Chris Sale has been cleared to begin throwing again after a visit with Dr. James Andrews, according to Rob Bradford of WEEI Radio. The goal is for Sale to be a full go for Spring Training in a few short months. Sale’s latest visit to the physician comes as a follow-up to an August appointment in which Sale received a platelet-rich plasma injection.
The Red Sox had originally expected to have their star lefty re-evaluated six weeks after the fact, but their early departure from the playoff picture allowed them to play it slow when it became apparent that Sale wouldn’t be needed in October. So the prolonged timeline is not reflective of Sale’s progress; assistant GM Brian O’Halloran said that “the rehab has gone very well and Chris is exactly where we want him to be.”
Sale missed all of September and much of August after encountering problems with his throwing elbow, landing on the injured list after experiencing inflammation in the wake of an August 13 start.
Even when he was healthy, Sale wasn’t himself, finishing the season with a 4.40 ERA, the worst mark of his career. His peripheral numbers were more in line with his career norms, but that did little to mitigate concerns about diminished fastball velocity. Luckily, it seems that Sale’s early-season dip in velocity was unconnected to the elbow injury, which is believed to have surfaced in August.
Still, any unanswered questions will be magnified by Sale’s hefty price tag, with a five-year contract extension worth $145MM taking effect in 2020, when Sale will earn $30MM. He’ll earn similar salaries through his age-35 season. From a financial perspective, Sale’s injury concerns could hardly have come at a worse time, but it seems there’s hope that Sale’s 2019 injuries won’t linger into the offseason and beyond. He didn’t suffer any ligament damage, and today’s update should inspire some optimism that Sale will once again be a stalwart in the Boston rotation and return to the Cy Young form that he maintained for the better part of a decade.
Anybody out there need a left-handed starting pitcher? We’ve got two to give away 🙂
That’s nuts!
Can we just go ahead and stop referring to Sale as an “ace?” I mean… I’m okay with “former ace” but an injured/injury prone guy that is suffering dips in velocity and posting an ERA over 4 is hardly an ace. If he gets back to that level fine but it the meantime he’s not an ace just because the Red Sox have regrettably paid him like one.
You don’t lose ‘ace’ status after one off year where the guy still put up elite peripherals. Was Verlander no longer an ace in 2015?
He didn’t have elite peripherals either though. His k/9 was on par with past seasons but in almost every other category he posted his worst numbers in years and at far from elite levels.
His K/w was 5.89. That is better than his career 5.37, and his career 5.37 is the best of all time. So there is that. His 2.93 xFIP ranks #3 in MLB at a level of 140 innings. He had a 10-game stretch in the middle with an ERA of 2.14, with an epic 106/14 K/W in 67.1 IPs.
Even in his last two games, before they shut him down, he had a 25/2 K/W in 14.2 IPs. His HR/FB, LOB%, and BABIP all suggest that he pitched much better than his ERA would suggest.
And ownership blamed DD for the financial mess the team is in. What would Sale have gotten on the open market had the team not extended him? Ownership had to approve every one of the big money deals inked. Others have in fact previously indicated it was ownership that pressed for the Panda signing, not Sherington. I was actually for the Hanley signing (although for less years) so I won’t kill them for that one. Also the team one with Price so I can accept that. My issues recently are mainly the Eolvaldi, Peace and Sale deals when they knew Mookie was coming up. Mookie in turn should have been traded last year if he wasn’t going to sign. Yes, the team at the deadline last year was just two games out but well run teams sell early as compared to selling too late. That or they should ignore the penalties and just go for it again.
The Panda signing is on Larry Lucchino not Cherington. Cherington did not want either Sandoval or Ramirez but was overruled. Ben was a build from within guy who wanted to sign homegrown guys like Lester. There’s a reason he was shown the door when Dombrowski got there it’s called different philosophies.
A simple answer to your question Dewey, “what would Sale have gotten on the open market had the team not signed him?”:
A hell of a lot less than the $145.
Given that he would have been a free agent as an injured player, there wouldn’t have been much in the way of competition.
Come on now-his health has shown red flags for years. Combine the history of those flags with hi stress innings, they should have known what to look for with a guy who had lost command of the strike zone.
Sure John Henry has to eat some of the responsibility for signing off, however Trader Dave must have made the recommendation.
How the hell did Sale lose command of the strike zone? Have you seen his 2018 numbers? They were the best of Sale’s career. There was plenty of reason to extend him before he hit the open market.
I think that might be mikeyank trolling on a new account. Sounds like him and is similarly fact-less.
No, there was not plenty of reason to extend Sale at that time. He had health issues the entire second half of the 2018 regular season and also the postseason, they should have waited until at least the 2019 All-Star break to see how he did. He pitched only once in spring training before he got the extension! At the time, everyone thought he signed for less than what they expected he’d get. Now we know why, dude was physically not right.
Fits… I think Dewey is too dense to realize that Sale would be hitting the market right now after that disappointing season. I also think he fails to realize that the Sox could have offered Sale a 1 year $17.8 million qualifying offer this offseason and Sale would have likely accepted. Wouldn’t it be great to have Sale on a one year deal at $17.8 million to see if he can rebound compared to 5 years at $29 million per year after you found out he’s a disappointment? I think Dewey is pretending in his mind that the Red Sox should have treated Sale like a free agent before last season even though he was far from that… And still widely considered injury prone. Don’t worry. As long as Boston pays all their players like they are free agents and don’t take advantage of tean control and potential qualifying offer status the Red Sox will keep sucking. The best part is the fans i n Boston will still talk about how great they are even though they obviously suck. Hey… They did it for 85 years. Why stop now? I know what they should do… Go give $100 million to Carl Crawford. That’ll fix their problem.
Fever, he signed for less? Such assumed he would stay healthy and productive at the end of the year, something he’s NEVER yet done. That’s my issue. Never mind what he did in Chicago, his two full seasons in Boston spoke volumes.
Fits, the own needs to be taken out of the stock certificates issued, representing the team’s corporate structure as Henry, Lucchino, et al. only seem to accept responsibility when thins go right. They need to own certain decisions that I believe as a group, corporate made. The buck stops with ownership.
StandUp, your post “seems” to be tongue in cheek. Boston keep sucking? They and the Giants are the most successful this century and both have also had some horrible seasons. I’d take four duck boat parades with the last place finishes and disappointed 2018 any time. My question though is were the wins in spite of management occasional meddling or in part because of it? The Sox seem to be on a volatile stock market ride with extreme peaks and lows. My main issue is with Mookie. They still publicly don’t seem to know which way they prefer to go and I think the best road is to say nothing and see what develops. Interested teams will be making inquiries.
Look at 2018 again. Sale did not look great at End. Sales mechanics and body type screams crash and burn instead of slow down turn. The Sox signed Sale to an extension when he had a year left. They bidder against themselves, DD is a moron and ownership was either lazy counting their $ or again morons as I would think there would be a big meeting with pitching coach/Dept, analytics, scouting, GM, ….ect b4 they make a deal like this. Same with Eovoldi knowing Betts is coming up. Unless they like me do not believe Betts is worth $300+. Hes a $200 mil player. Once his speed goes so goes his power and he becomes a light hitting OF who was great for a few years.
A hell of a lot less than the $145.
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If you could predict the future. He was the #2 pitcher in BB for the three previous seasons, and finished 12-4 with a 2.11 in 2018. had he duplicated almost any of his seasons in 2019, he certainly would’ve gotten paid.
As long as Boston pays all their players like they are free agents and don’t take advantage of tean control and potential qualifying offer status the Red Sox will keep sucking.
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Yup, we certainly got hammered on the Lester extension. And is it too late to cancel the Bogaerts extension?
The Bogaerts extension is a steal. But with the Sale extension they came to close to even to what they would’ve gotten had they both been FA. Bogey would’ve gotten significantly more and Sale certainly would’ve gotten significantly less.
If you figure Bogey was a 7/190 guy and Sale was more of a 3/75 you’re pretty much even.
Giaraputto… Betts is Carl Crawford 2.0 with more power and less speed.
Dewey what’s with all the misspelled names, you hitting the eggnog already? LOL
We don’t know what went on with Sale physically in 2018. If anybody should be blamed, it’s likely the Sox medical staff for greenlighting the contract extension last spring. The Panda deal was horrible, not only because of concerns about his conditioning but also because at the time of the signing his numbers had drastically declined 3 consecutive seasons (OPS went from .909 to .739).
Price was another blunder. The Sox competed with themselves, he didn’t have any other offers even close to the one he got. Was he deserving of the biggest pitcher contract in MLB history? Absolutely not, he was not a good “big game” pitcher and never dominated like Scherzer or Verlander.
Evo had an injury plagued year and was badly mishandled, let’s wait another year before passing judgment. There’s a reason why he was the most wanted free agent last winter, he absolutely dominated in big games (against Yanks and in the postseason). and again team doctors had given him a clean bill of health.
Sox were still very much in contention at the trade deadline, so trading Mookie was not an option.
Wait… Did you just refer to Nathan Evoldi as “the most wanted free agent last year?” Are you on crack?
LOL Standup but let’s play nice. I try to although we’re all human and sometimes I also can’t resist. Fever, no wasn’t into the eggnog. Not sure of the spelling errors you’re referencing but sometime spell correct works against me and other times my fat fingers don’t seem to hit the right keys.
He did not need to be extended 6+ Months b4 season ended. And I doubt they had many teams will to give him 5/$146 coming off a year when he had arm problems and a long playoff run. What is pure stupidity by the entire organization is signing him b4 season started and bidding against yourself before you even know he’s 100%. Geesh. Sox fans are delusional. With 2020 FA class coming would anyone risk THEIR own$146 mil or risk your job before you see him pitch for a few months. He would of jumped on that deal like a puppy to a bone. And I gave no proof but, my eyes but Sale will not live up to half his contract. 5 years? How many wins, innings and ERA will he average over next 5 years. Ugh… I see it as ugly to go with Price crying when playing Yankees and Eovoldi a waste of $. Sox and Yanks should not take each other’s past junk they threw away. We got Ells you got Eovoldi. But, we did have Damon.
I can’t wait to see the comments here when Strasburg, a guy who’s been worse than Sale throughout his career, not to mention, less healthy in general too, gets a contract much better than the one Sale signed this spring. I’m sure they’ll be justifying it lol.
Strasberg remained healthy when he needed to. Sale apparently didn’t even need to …
Johnny Hinshaw saw him Christmas shopping at JC Penney.
I hope for his sake the non aggressive treatment works. Sale always is disappointed with his last yrs performance, n lord knows his price tag is always there. They really need the 2018 Sale.
Bryant for Sale straight up, who is dumb for doing it?
I’d rather have Devers
Bryant can replace Mookie in right. Yeah I was just throwing it out there. I forgot how much Sale was still owed. I still have a soft spot in my heart for Chris so hopefully he returns to form
Theo Epstein if he plans on remaining a Tom Ricketts employee through his current contract extension. Of course, this trade would earn him brownie points if he desires a return to Boston in two years or less.
The Cubs, they’re better of trading Bryant for prospects to help with the rebuild that is coming soon
Chris Sale has negative value right now. No team would be willing to take on 5 years and $145 million. So you first have to figure out what teams would pay him ($75 million? $100 million? $125 million?) and then figure out how much surplus value Bryant has (he’s worth a ton more than his current contract pays him)
So no, the cubs wouldn’t do that deal unless the Red Sox paid at least half of his contract, maybe more. And I’m a Red Sox fan
And there’s the answer. Sale for Bryant, with the Sox paying a portion of Sales contract
Chris Sale Cleared To Begin Throwing…..hissy fits!
Cleared until he’s shut down. Seeing his believing and based on what I’ve seen, best case is he pitches lights out for three months, gets a standing ovation for starting the all-star game and then after the trade deadline, he goes on the injured list and is never heard from again until trade rumors develop at the November 2020 GM meetings.
Sale is going to be the highest paid closer!
Mookie Betts
Chris Sale
For
Nick Williams
Cornelius Randolph
Cole Irvin
Adonis Medina
Phils take on ALL salary
Even with the Phillies taking on all the money I would still think the Red Sox demand either Bohm or Howard be included in this hypothetical trade
Thats a lot of nothing going to boston
You got a pretty good hitter and former top prospect in Williams, an MLB back end lefty in Irvin, a former 1st round pick in Randolph and a very good prospect in Medina.
I think if the Phillies were to take on all of that massive salary, a trade like this may get it done. Nobody is going to take any of those three (Sale,Price,Eovaldi) without cash being kicked in and for only one year of Betts.
At least this hypothetical offers the Sox some interesting names that still have potential as they all were top prospects at one point.
Never say never. More likely to say “unlikely”. It only takes one desperate owner.
Dream on brother
“Most likely” I agree Butch but I never saw the Beckett, AGon, Crawford trade either. Even though things have changed, it still only takes one owner be it a new one in LA or an older one like what DD was working under in Detroit.
Sale has value moving forward. If you replaced Sale with Eovaldi and Price; you have a deal that make sense for Boston. If their goal is purely shedding money.
And admittedly Price and Eovaldi are probably better than the #4 and #5 starters the Phils are trotting out there anyway.
Padres…Myers and Hosmer plus prospect. Offsets salary, Sox also get a higher end prospect or two.
I’d rather have Sale. Id rather have just about anybody else than Myers or Hosmer. Those two contracts are arguably two of the top 5 worst in MLB.
If Sale is 100% healthy yes but its a risk. If there is doubt the Sox get two players that still technically are in their prime and have fared much better in the AL then in the NL.
Thays like trading a lambroghini with a check engine light on in and getting back a 100k mile Honda civic plus a 160k mile Toyota camry.
Could you do it? Would the other two still be in prime servicable years? Maybe, but comparatively it begs they question why?
Hosmer I’d take without Myers. Way it works is Sox take on more salary in later years but get relief by trading Price and Mookie so the 2020 payroll gets under the tax. More cheap but useful players will be needed going to Boston.
Nah, you want Price, Vasquez and Travis for Myers, Hedges, Xavier Edwards and Hudson Head …no money changes hands….you get a #1 starter if healthy, a significant improvement at C, and a useful spare part…..Sox get a fallen angel 1B who might turn it around in Fenway, defense at least behind the plate, excellent athleticism in Edwards, and a bit of a Benetendi-clone in Head, if the power develops…..
Sox get under the tax, and get some Head……
Brilliant
Get use to having Hosmer and Myers on the Padres because it going to be tough if not impossible to move them. No one wants either.
Sale in the first year of that new 5 year deal at 30 mil a pop with that elbow wow imglad hes not on my team …. and I think lucky would be is his diminished velo WAS attributed to his elbow woes this year and since they’re not just means the velo most likely aint comin back …… good luck
He lost velocity intermittently, not all the time till he went down.
Absolutely Pasha2k and Sale was under orders from ST on to dial it down (velocity wise) in order to attempt being able to go into any PO situation, starting as long as possible. 2 previous seasons with Boston Sale would regularly hit 96-98mph multiple pitches every game, then end up missing a few starts and be fairly worn out, or hurt come PO time, the plan last spring was to just hold him back velocity wise to try and stop that, but injury still hit.
Still good to see the elbow is fine. Having him back 80-90% is a better pitcher than most other starts in the league.
Hold it,,,,didn’t read anywhere that the elbow is fine…only that he’s cleared to begin throwing…only time will tell if his elbow indeed holds up. Didn’t we read that he was held back in Spring Training to limit his innings and keep him fresh for the season, not to limit his velocity even though you need innings in the Spring to build your arm up…understood.
And, really nobody cares how fast he threw 2 years ago….
With that extension he signed, the Sox need him to pitch through August right up until the end of the season which he’s not been able to do the last couple of years….wonder what that contract vs. results will look like 4-5 years from now?
Agree fully with you here a Rock.
Jeez rocky.. Limiting velocity, like throwing a cpl mph less is using a tad less harder effort wise in order to try to remain fresh I always thought and remember reading it several times last winter, hearing Cora himself say it during interviews during ST on broadcasts how they were going to try to use Sale in 2019.
Doesnt matter its a bad … potentially disastrous contract …. Sox arent making out on that deal and im sure they, along with their fans, would love to take it back ….. but oh well
He was also throwing his hardest pitches of the season (98.4) in the second to last start before he hit the IL. His velocity recovered fine.
I agree about what constitutes “luck” as concerns lower velocity and the afflicted elbow, and I had to read that twice to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding it.
When he found out about this latest update on Sale, Alex Cora responded “we have to get better.”
Chris Sale cleared to begin throwing. Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty.
No ligament damage. Good to go.
Just heads up Sox fans as Halo fans heard similar news regarding platelet-rich plasma injections in Andrew Heaney, Garrett Richard’s, and Shohei Ohtani. All 3 later had Tommy John surgeries.
Yes, those 3 had their surgery, but not by Dr. James Andrews. Their surgeon has been doing them for 5 years, Andrews since 1985.
Did we miss the malpractice against that surgeon that only had 5 years of experience….or are we do agree with you that its your belief he was some hack as compared to what would have been successful surgery by Dr Andrews?
PRP is relatively new and is being used more and more to regenerate just about everything including hair. My osteopath has successfully referred retired police and firemen who’ve lost knee cartilage. He wants me to do it but most private insurance don’t yet cover the cost. My guess is the idea was to hope it would succeed without the need for conventional surgery. I’m not sure if the arm procedure is not as successful as the knee or more likely the success in returning to a functional level is far different than to a competitive level. Reminds of Pedie and his micro fracture surgeries.
it costs around $700.00 per treatment.
I guess it depends on where you live and what is being done. In my personal case, it was over $8k, still far less than an eventual knee replacement. As it Is, I chose SynVisc injections that insurance wouldn’t pay for. Cost me $400 for three shots only because I’ve been going to this doctor for 20:years. Should have been considerably more but this is really a bandaid treatment for hopefully the next one to two years.
All 3 Halos got second opinions from Dr. James Andrew’s prior to going under the knife. Renowned surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who is the head team physician for the Dodgers and the Rams with 34 years of medical experience performed all 3 procedures. Not sure what your angle is but there were no shortcuts in these cases.
Okay, but in Sale’s case he’s already gotten the second opinion from Andrews who confirmed the initial diagnosis and prescribed the PRP treatment. He also just gave him the go ahead to throw. Of course he could suffer a setback and end up needing surgery anyway but it seems like Sale is in a better spot than those 3,were. Price is an example of someone who had the PRP and didn’t need TJ, as is Tanaka and numerous other examples as well.
For Sales sake (and MLB), I hope that is the case. Way too many injuries to these pitchers. I cringe every time I see a guy go down for TJ surgery.
I believe you meant that 4.40 era was the highest of his career? Also, Vlasic makes a spicy jalepeno pickle now and I can’t recommend it enough
The Dombrowski gift that will keep on giving for the next five years. Ugh….
In DD we trust, right?
Blame ownership. Anyone who thinks DD had authority to sign for the team without clearing it is naive.
The owners hire a bunch of baseball people who SUPPOSEDLY know more than them about baseball. The owners trust their front office evaluators to make these decisions. Once they realize the guys in the front office are actually drooling buffoons, the damage is already done.
Spot on Q_S.
@dewey How can you blame ownership? If ownership made the baseball decisions then why bother paying the operations guys all these millions of dollars when they can do it themselves? Don’t kid yourself Dombrowski is 100% to blame for the state of the Red Sox and no one else. Ask the Tigers how they feel about DD.
When it comes to big money items, this generation of owners is clearly involved, be it most big or small market teams. The teams likely set a budget and to exceed it, ownership consent is needed. Baseball is a business. Simple as that.
I’m not a DD apologist, but Sale was only 29 (days away from being 30) when he signed that 5yr extension on 03/23/19. The Sox had just won the World Series. Sale was acquired via hefty price of Moncada and Kopech; an extension was a given. I’m not sure if there were signs of trouble, but from a non-Sox fan, it seemed like a no-brainer move.
You’re missing a key fact in that Sale was coming off back to back seasons in which he was hurt and missed significant time. Not to mention the fact that a far more accomplished pitcher in kershaw who was roughly the same age and also coming off his own injury concerns signed for a year less. Not really that much of a no brainer when you consider that
Idiotic reply. First of all, Sale had been significantly better than Kershaw each of the past two years (17 & 18), as well as healthier too. Secondly, Kershaw’s AAV for his deal was $31 million, significantly higher than Sale’s $25.6.
Even this year, I’ll grant you Kershaw had a better year, Sale’s peripherals were still stronger and he hasn’t lost nearly as much pure stuff as Kershaw has. Sale is still capable of dialing it up to 98+ mph. Kershaw can’t even get it up to 95 mph anymore.
In 2017, he had 214 innings (led the league in fact) and in 2018 had 158 innings where I see he missed time in Aug of that year (but he did have a start on Aug 12). In fact, from 2015 – 2017, he pitched over 200 innings each season. I’m not seeing significant time lost. If anything, you could make the argument he was overworked with too many innings. Again, I honestly dont care, but to me it was a clear cut move to extend Sale.
Dirks, look at when those innings were pitched. Sale has never pitched strongly in Sepember and that’s probably the only needed flag for the team to have gone slowly. Odds were not big that he would have suddenly remained healthy and demanded Cole type money now.
To this day I am glad the White Sox traded away Sale! Sale always had a great start in the season but died down by the end of July. Sale relied too much on the slider to get them strikeouts rather than focusing on using his change up. All of that violent movement with throwing that slider just does not help out in the long run!
Wow, you should be a pitching coach.
Everthing BeeVeeTee said has been pretty common knowledge regarding Sale’s reliance on his slider rather than other pitches which is a violent movement with the way he throws it…..what are your credentials to criticize what is a pretty good comment?
Actually research now says that sliders and curveballs don’t put extra stress on the elbow.
Please provide us this allege research! It’s a fact that overusing a slider is not good for the tendons and ligaments! Come on, the human arm is not meant to make movements like that when throwing a slider or even a curveball!
Sox fan here BeeVeeTee is 100% right. I loved to watch Sale pitch, but was glad he was gone for the reasons stated.
White Sox fan, I should clarify
Maybe BeeVeeTee should be a pitching coach. Chris Sale’s actual pitching coach with the White Sox suggested such an approach with his ace. Don Cooper convinced Sale that pitching to contact in 2016 might improve his effectiveness for a whole season and also extend his career following yet another curtailed campaign in 2015. Guess what? Sale had career highs in GS (32), IP (226.2) and CG (6) while staying healthy all season. This was especially important to the White Sox since 2016 was Sale’s final year with the team and they were able to maximize their prospect return for him as they commenced their rebuild later that December with his trade to the Red Sox at the Winter Meetings.
Terry Francona always had three to five lefties in his batting order whenever the Indians were facing Sale when he was still on the White Sox. Francona knew Sale was not using his change up against left handed batters since they would hit it so he relied on his slider to get them out. Sale overused his slider to get that strike out but he had such a high pitch count by the fifth or sixth inning where his slider did not have the movement and the Indians just rocked him.
Sale led all of baseball in innings in his first year in Boston in 2017, while striking out over 300 and amping up his velocity. He was also a significantly more dominant pitcher than he was in 2016, when he pitched to contact.
Also, for everyone who is so eager to dump Sale, he has a full no trade clause so he’s going nowhere.
Sale pitching to contact in 2016 effectively reduced his need to throw so many sliders. That was the idea behind Don Cooper’s thinking, to keep Sale fresh and effective for an entire season while extending his career. Sale actually started 31+ games and pitched 200+ innings for three consecutive season from 2015-2017. He still was less effective in September with the White Sox and that continued with the Red Sox in August and September.
With the Red Sox in 2017 he abandoned the notion of pitching to contact and dominated hitters once again with an abundance of fastballs and sliders which resulted in another elite SO/IP ratio. He dominated into 2018 until the wheels starting falling off after July. He missed a couple of starts, returned for a brief outing in August and then missed a full month until returning in September when he had to build up his arm as if it was spring training all over again. In 2019 Sale had that awful April, rebounded nicely in May and June, then pitched poorly in July and halfway through August before being shut down for the season.
Every scout had durability concerns with Sale ever since he was a first round White Sox draft choice in 2010. They were worried about his skinny frame and his unorthodox delivery.
Instead of grooming him to be a starter in the minors, the White Sox chose to promote Sale to their bullpen two months after he turned pro because he had two dominating pitches (at that time a fastball and change) with great command AND the team was a contender in need of bullpen help down the stretch due to injuries including closer Bobby Jenks. Sale continued as a back end reliever in 2011 while Cooper helped him develop his slider and more or less abandon his curve, two breaking balls he used sparingly in college because he didn’t need them to blow away Division-2 hitters, all in preparation for him joining the White Sox rotation in 2012.
All the wear and tear with Sale is now finally catching up to him. The White Sox attempted to reduce his workload by having him pitch to contact in 2016 but he went back to his old ways with the Red Sox and the rest is history, or at least not a very promising one to conclude his dominating career.
Lmao. This is such a laughable foolish take. You seem to think that had Sale continued to ‘pitch to contact’, he would have remained healthy, even though he never did that prior to 2016 and was very healthy all those years as well as 2017. Sale didn’t start experiencing any injuries until 2018 when he started finding newfound peak velocity of 100+ mph. That lead to the shoulder problems. The elbow issues this year seemed to be caused by never consistently finding his mechanics this year. Let’s not just write the end for Sale just yet.
Sale dealt with injuries twice with the White Sox and spent time on the disabled list. I know for a fact one of Sale’s disabled stint was for his elbow while the other stint was allegedly for his ankle. The White Sox were trying to move Sale since his first full season as a starter.
People also seemed to forget that Sale was notorious for getting so many cortisone shots early in the season where he surpasses the MLB limit of allowing of many cortisone shots a player can get a season.
Sale hit 100 many times before 2018.
I’d ask you for a source on the cortisone shot claim but I know you wouldn’t be able to produce one, just like you can’t produce a source for throwing sliders being bad on the arm. Every pitch is ‘bad for the arm’ there’s a reason they call it a small injury every time you throw a pitch. Throwing 100 mph fastballs is bad for the arm, which is what led to Sale’s issues in 2018.
Nope, no he didn’t. Check his brooks baseball page. Sale didn’t hit 100 mph, prior to 2018, since his rookie year in 2010, out of the pen. That was basically newfound peak velocity for Chris. He also had a lot more 99’s in that 2018 stretch before going on the IL.
1-2016 was also his worst FIP year in his career.
2-IRT staying healthy all year, he had one more GS in 2016 than he did in 2015, and the same amount as he did in 2017. No big deal here.
We need him healthy
We need him healthy
Sale is toast. No one will trade for him without huge eaten salary by Boston. No one is fooled that a pitcher with a two inch in diameter elbow is all set after platelets. No one.
Shohei Ohtani was cleared to throw from the mound 4 days ago.
Upton, Pujols, Cozart for Price and Sale … who says no ?
Boston gets worse, but the money will come off much sooner
Angel’s get solid pitchers (when healthy) but take on a ton of $$
Boston says no and laughs
Red Sox would be wise to start fresh with pitching and look at young arms – & cement a bull pen – Yankee ‘19 style. You got Martinez. Sale is done TJ next mid season.
The Sox & Betts situation is poor Mgnt / ownership lack of vision. Face it – the team needs an overhaul in key areas. 2022 maybe a LCS.
I love the idiotic replies like this from people pretending to have a clue. Sale gets some good news from the most renowned orthopedic surgeon on pitchers and we have nothing but comments like this about how he’s ‘done’ and will have TJ anyway, as if you know anything.
Pretty much a laugh-a-minute comment board today. I hate to break the news to the commentators, but 99%+ have no idea what they are talking about. Unless some of them know Mr. Sale personally, they don’t have the foggiest idea of what condition his elbow is in.
You kind of need to see an MRI and be orthopedic surgeon to have an opinion.
Particularly funny are the Yankee trolls. You’d have thought that, with Tanaka pitching with a partially torn UCL for the past 6 years, it might have dawned on them that not every injury is career-threatening.
The Red Sox should trade for Mike Yastrzemski just because. Seeing Yastrzemski on the back of an outfielder’s uniform in Fenway again would be cool.