Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke says that star lefty Chris Sale won’t be ready for the start of the season, as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports (Twitter links). This news doesn’t come as a surprise but is still a bit of a disappointment. It’s worth reminding that the recent slate of rule changes in MLB included pushing the minimum IL stay for pitchers back to 15 days.
Sale, whose return from elbow woes was interrupted by pneumonia, is said to be approximately two weeks behind the schedule of the remainder of the team’s starters. That provides a solid gauge as to the earliest possible point at which he’d be slotted back into the MLB rotation. Fortunately, the delay largely reflects the poorly timed illness, not any development of concern with regard to Sale’s throwing arm.
While the Sox would surely prefer to hand Sale the ball on Opening Day, the team can live with a few missed starts. That said, the organization needs to rack up every possible win if it hopes to surprise sans Mookie Betts. Even with the rival Yankees dealing with a host of worrisome health problems early in camp, the New York roster is loaded. The Rays look strong and there are several good Wild Card competitors from other divisions.
Despite the desire to turn Sale loose as soon as possible, it’s quite understandable that the Red Sox would elect a conservative course. The club is invested in him for the long run and has obviously not put all of its eggs in the 2020 basket.
4th place Red Sox this year !
Idk. Toronto is not an impressive looking team
Blue Jays have a better future than the Red Sox right now.
Not with Bloom in charge
I don’t know about the Jays having a better future…they have no pitching
Blue Jays certainly have the better future, but I think Red Sox have the better present, even without Mookie. Devers, JDM, and Sale (I believe he’ll bounce back this year, especially since last year’s advanced metrics were largely in line with his career averages aside from HR/9), is a very good core. Vlad, Jr., Bichette, and Pearson will all be good, but I think it’s another year before they eclipse Boston.
Too lazy to look it up, but curious how many times the Jays have finished ahead of Boston come October in the Jays 40+ years of existence? Doubt it’s been many more than a handful of times.
Boston has one of the worst farms in baseball. As far as Jays not having any pitching, Nate Pearson is one of the top pitching prospects along with 2 other potential arms coming
I will take Devers over Vlad or Bichette any day. Now and in the future.
Jays have incredible young talented every day players but Boston already has Devers and Bogie. Championships are as Mc inferred above won on pitching. Right now neither is position to crow.
Boston may have one of the worst farms in baseball, but farm teams don’t play in the major leagues!
Nate Pearson says hi about Torontos future.
Why? The Red Sox have a history of highly successful, quick rebuilds, coupled with a willingness to spend as much as anybody else in the sport. The Blue Jays have neither of those things. And, thus far, their big prospect, Guerrero Jr., looks about league average.
Peter dipersio06: Farm teams ARE how MOST franchise’s are built for contention. Just look at the team you referenced in your comment for a very good example. You either develop your prospects for future use or use them to (hopefully) acquire guys to get you over the top.
The Sox have devers and xander at sS and 3B. Those are the two position jays are high on and I’d take the Red Sox player at both spots. The present and future Re brighter for the Sox
Same
Can he pitch in a major league game first? Before that he says nothing.
13 times:
2015,2014,2012,2006,1994,1993,1992,1991,1989,1987,1985,1984,1983
Most of the success was a while ago, but not as rare as you think.
Red Sox have no pitching either. After Sale, their rotation is trash., and now he’s injured.
R-yu kididng?
Eduardo Rodriguez would be the ace of the Toronto staff.
Yes, worth repeating….”farm teams don’t play in the major leagues” and it is surprising how few prospects for each team actually ever play in the majors. 97 percent of minor leaguers never play in the major and only 1 percentever have meaning full careers. Yes, 10 out of 1000 draftees ever have meaningful careers. 20 out of 1000 are on the AAA bus back and forth…..
You mean the guy who has more faith in a low OBP Peraza than he does in keeping a fan favorite in Holt? I admit the Betts trade was alright, but Bloom’s FA acquisitions are terrible.
13 / 40 Jays 32.5 percent
27 / 40 Red Sox 67.5 percent
Yes, Red Sox have significantly outplayed the Jays !!!!!!!!!!
Chavis is Holts replacement at 2nd base. That is why the Red Sox got Moreland. Yes, I think Chavis will make a significantly larger contribution than Holt.
He might being playing at the league average, but he looks awesome. I believe he will become on of the most feared batters in the league. This for a Toronto hater
Holt was also redundant as Lin and Marco Hernández are left handed reserve infielders. Peraza is a back up insurance policy in case of injuries. Chavis was going to get more 2b at bats and in the end they needed to spend the money on pitching. Too bad the Betts/Price trade did not happen sooner so that more quality arms would have been available.
Holt was not redundant in that he proved he could be valuable down the stretch. Let’s be honest. I like Bloom but he expected Holt’s market to exceed where it ended up and jumped on Peraza as if he was still in Tampa.
Just depends on if they have breakouts out of the young position players or not.
I think they get 3rd. But I’m going to predict that the Blue Jays’ young guys make big leaps forward next year, like Giolito and Moncada did last year, and the Jays take 2nd in 2021 and contend for a WC spot.
The Red Sox rotation is pitiful.
Their lineup is still good, although similar to the rising Jays.
Ryu was a game changing addition and might be enough to flip the script.
This division will be competitive for all the wrong reasons.
Idk what to expect from the RS honestly but I do know they need Sale to perform at a high level to have a shot. The rotation is thin with him and dog doo without him.
If mookie was their only good bat, then it’d be a bigger loss.
But with an already loaded lineup, swapping in Verdugo isn’t much of a drop off…
their main issue is their lack of starting pitching.
Jays and Rays should take full advantage because Sox will be bigtime spenders next offseason
Will be wiser spenders. Only big time if the right opportunity presents itself. They might wait until the next CBA is agreed on. The Yankees will soon find out what the Sox did this year, overspending under the current CBA has repercussions far greater than financial. Look at the dead money the Yankees have as of now, Ellsbury and Seve, then a good chunk at least with respect to Hicks, Stanton and Paxton. My guess is $50m minimum and potentially substantially more. I’m not expecting the Yankees to win the Els’ grievance. At most, they negotiate and save $2m.
P.S. Sox are in the same boat with Sale and Eovaldi but that’s why I say wiser.
Freddy H. – Agree completely. Red Sox main problem is pitching and not the loss of Betts or Holt.
Look at his recent performance. I am very surprised he has held up as long as he has. Suspect it’s all downhill from here.
4 championships in 15 years.
How many championships do they have in the past 100 years?
How are players that are dead relevant? Nobody cares who won a World Series 50 years ago. I’m an a Yankees fan, but I also live in reality.
True comparison is the Sox current ownership from when the Steinbrenner sons’ got heavily involved. Boston looks pretty good in this snap shot window comparison.
Championships in the last 100 years? Go back five more years (105) and you can add four Red Sox banners.
But as the other guy said, let’s talk about THIS Century LOL.
The Red Sox have 9 World Series titles total.
They are behind only Yankees and Cardinals.
The BoSox didn’t look so hot last year with Betts and Price.
Yes, 4 championships in 15 years and each time RS significantly turned over the roster before the next championship.
Not to mention (and I obviously am no fan of the Red Sox) they won those without cheating (unless people are going to try and compare Big Papi’s alleged PED use to systemic organizational cheating).
That’s because they have had the money to spend and money can buy championships in baseball!
Yes, as I remember King George Steinbrenner bought quite a few in the 1990s. Glad the Red Sox could get some too
Disagree with this because their core were brought up in the organization.
With pitchers. 2 weeks can turn into 2 months real quick
Especially one named Chris Sale
That’s the truth. Not Sale specifically but it just seems like a ton of teams are holding back starters coming off injury last year for a minuscule amount of time. For example how is Ohtani not ready to go? I understand caution and a conservative approach with a player that valuable but I’m pretty sure he had TJS in 2018 and served as a dh only last year. Isn’t that ample time? I’m no Dr I could be wrong but after all the time resting and rehabbing why do so many guys need an extra week or two? Maybe they need to start ramping up sooner to get into playing shape. Seems odd that someone can be out 12-18 months and two weeks would mean anything
It’s pneumonia, not the elbow. At least I hope so LOL
I am looking at 74 wins for the Red Sox this year.
I bet they are closer to .500 with all the games they play against the AAA teams that seem to play in the AL
74 wins is only 7 below
Cubs fans are getting bitter. I think it’s “kick the cat syndrome” from their team’s FO doing absolutely nothing all winter except BS about having no money while the Reds leapt past them.
1). Sometimes addition by subtraction is true. It’s true in this case. Reds have not played the games yet. Let’s see what happens. Reds have not passed anyone yet.
2) Cubs fans upset team made its own network to show all of the games and it’s not available to most Chicago households as of now.
3) White Sox have much better team than Red Sox. This team will win 95 games in 2021. Maybe division this year. Watch replay of 2005 post season. History will repeat itself in next few years.
I know we all knew this was coming, but WOW–The 2020 Red Sox might be an even more intriguing ultimately meaningless dumpster fire than the Presidential election! I’m in!
Please, God, don’t bring that crap here.
😉
We’re just Biden our time until the season starts.
“Binder our time” lol
Totally agree, sports should be our oasis from all that crap!
If the Red Sox finish .500 it should be considered a successful season. They REALLY have a lot of work rebuilding the rotation over the long haul.
I heard by many that the Redsox were just ok
in 2013 and 2018. Hmm.
I’m not so sure about that for 2013, because they were expected to finish in last place.
In 2018 they were the hands down favorite and best team all season so not sure what you’re talking about
Astros were the favorite in 2018 (at least for AL) to my knowledge, but the Sox exploded that year. Can’t really blame Vegas on that one. I could be totally wrong
We all know why.
You don’t know squat. Every Red Sox player and manager says they will find absolutely nothing. Astros are the only team that cheated with this.
Other teams break the rules? I would guess every team in baseball does something. Steroids, stealing signs the old way, whatever it is.
But upper management came up with the garbage can video stuff in Houston and everyone in the Dugout AND the field implemented it with no problem. No conscience.
Tampa Bay, the floor is yours.
I doubt the Rays catch the Yankees. Even with Severino out, they got Cole, who’s no doubt even better. And they won over 100 last year, despite all the injuries. I’m not a Yankees fan, but I don’t see how anyone else wins the AL East this year, barring a complete collapse of half their starting lineup. I do think the Rays likely wind up with a WC, though. With that rotation, anything can happen in the playoffs.
Don’t sleep on the Jays. They have possibly the best SP prospect, along with a slew of MLB-experienced young core just ready to breakout. I mean, Reese McGuire is certainly excited for the season…!
the Jays SP mix is to cluttered for Pearson to start the season on the 40 man roster.
Pearson will also run into an innings limit this season due to missing all of 2018.
@RunDMC, it’s possible their young core take the necessary leaps forward this year and put them in the mid-80s for wins. I wouldn’t expect too much out of Pearson this year. It’s not common that a pitcher comes in and is great right away. A number of HOFers had rookie years that were mediocre or just bad. Just like a lot of people are saying the White Sox will have to wait one more year, I think the same is true of the Blue Jays. Their time will come; it’s just not yet.
Reese is all glove no stick unless he’s playing in the car.
Pearson will not be given the chance to take a spot. If he dominates AAA for a month and still hasn’t been promoted he should go Kris Bryant and file a service time grievance. Pearson should be a lock in the rotation for opening day and won’t be.
Agreed, but Pearson is just reinforcement at some of their depth without stating the obvious (Ryu signing). I mean, it’s got be chest-puffing to see your power arm strike out Yankee starters, even if it’s on a mound in Florida in February.
Yeah, and when he homers he’s definitely a forearm bump – NO handshakes or high fives
The ball helped the Bombers more than other clubs. The problem the Yankees have to watch for is again overusing the pen. They envisioned a deep starting staff that would ease that burden but as great as Cole was in Houston, he’s only one starter.
It was with all the injuries, but the replacements played out of their minds good. We will see if they can keep that up.
I’d like to see the Red Sox or Yankees do it with the Rays payroll!
Ray have zero World Series wins!!!!!!
BFFLR.., “it” you mean third place?? The Red Sox will be doing exactly that this year with the Rays payroll Man In Charge. Under the luxury cap.
omg, I can’t believe what awful luck this team has. Or is it part of the game? I can’t remember. Oh, it depends which team I root for. Whatever.
Commish hasn’t brought the hammer down or released investigation findings of sign-stealing. They get to keep their title, but not their manager. The. Worst. Luck.
Cora was fired because of what he did in Houston not Boston. The same goes for Beltran.
I’m still waiting for your comment on how suspicious it is sale is hurt/sick again? Isn’t this where you normally make some unfounded accusation about steroids?
Never about steroids. And only one team is suspicious.
Hey Wayhazy, don’t you get nauseous repeating yourself every day? My lord. What a waste of life you are.
Are the Sox going to win the division, nope. Will they get a wildcard? Maybe…but let’s not act like they don’t have a solid lineup. It’s a slow ramp up, it’s not TJ surgery. And Sale is still an elite arm. But, people love to hate the Sox, so this talk doesn’t surprise me. It’s evident with Verdugo. Praised in front of Jesus and everybody in LA, but a criminal thug when he’s now with The Sox.
The season hasn’t even started yet, lol, relax guys. We can start calling positional finishes in August/September…not February.
I honestly doubt they get a WC. With Betts, sure, they have a decent shot. That would have largely been the same team that steamrolled everyone in 2018 (though what effect cheating had, who can say?). I think the Rays got better, though, and Boston got worse. Second place in the AL West, whether it’s Astros or A’s, should get a WC, with the Indians and possibly White Sox and Angels in contention for one. Too many teams are now better than the Red Sox for them to have a good shot this year.
So who is the better pitcher in 2020? Sale? Or David Price, who got dumped for salary relief?
Think the Sox cut bait with the wrong one?
My money would be on Sale. Look at the advanced metrics from last year. Sale had a near career-high K/9, WHIP was up just slightly from his career average, and his FIP was 3.39 to Price’s 3.62, despite battling injuries. Only his HR/9 was an outlier against his career average (and even there, Price’s rate was nearly as high), so I think he comes back strong.
Simple. Which left upper extremity stays healthy? My money is on neither but if I had to choose, I’d choose Price because he’ll be asked to throw less innings in LA and because Sake has never ended the year as the Cy Young pitcher he has been the first half of most prior seasons. No one though was touching the Sale deal with five years left unless the Sox ate even more money.
It’s a fair argument against. I’m going with Sale because when healthy, I don’t think there’s a serious question as to who the better pitcher is.
Yea but Sale has to stay strong at the end. The knock on Price was he wilted in a October but he proved his worth in the 18 playoffs. I love Sale but it’s his turn to step up. If it wasn’t for Price’s attitude and remarks, he’d be more appreciated as he was never going to live up to that contract. Only recent ones to pitch at HOF level later in the career are JV and Big Max.
Red Sox 2020 rotation is a disaster….
In 2019,
Regular starters wins = 55
Spot starters wins = 4
BP wins = 30
Porcello, Price and Cashner accounted for 23 of those 55 and E-Rod had a stellar year of 19 wins that will be hard to reproduce. All other things being relatively equal and with Sale not 100% now or in the near future, they’re looking at 15 less wins in 2020 which puts them around a 74-88 season.
Geez, they already needed a fifth starter and now this.
I hear Clay Bucholtz is still looking for work, maybe it’s time for a reunion.
BIG SEXY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
People forget the Nationals lost one of their top hitters during the offseason, and look what happened? Baseball is funny that way. Boston still has a lot of pop. It’s the pitching that’ll sink them.
Same with my Yankees. They desperately need solid pitching and are flipping a coin with our younger guys.
Yep agreed, this year in the AL East it will be survival of the fittest. Fingers crossed, go Red Sox.
Again, these Sox dummies were worried about medical records from the Twins prospect and rejected him but ok’d getting Broken back Verdugo and should have been concerned about injury plagued Sale. They should have been giving a go to trading him away. Right now it turns out that the only healthy player was that supposed damaged goods twins prospect, now on Dodger’s and all I hear is reports from Dodger camp how amazing an arm
Sale’s health is exactly why the Red Sox are probably being extra cautious. Plus the my knew about the Verdugo back thing. That trade was more about dumping salary and getting under the luxury tax regardless of what they say.
Your comment lacks logic and reality. If you are the Dodgers you would take sale and his five-year contract? Or price and 3 years -1/2 the money? Think before you write.
The Bosoxs will be putting out there a much diminished former all star. Should have traded him when they had the chance.
They just traded FOR him two years ago. When were they going to trade him away? When was that chance, and to what team?
One of the best moves Whitesox ever did was unload this guy when they did and got a great package for this glass pitcher
It worked out well, no doubt. Slightly ironic, though, that the 2nd-best piece coming back was a guy who missed all of last year with TJS and will be on an innings limit this year. Moncada certainly appears to be working out, at the very least.
I would rather have Sale and a 2018 World Series win than Moncada. The White Sox have won exactly 1 World Series in the last 111 years.
The Rays must be licking their chops.
How are the Rays licking their chops? They still have to compete and they aren’t immuned themselves from injury especially their pitching that has had as well injuries on their slate. It will be an interesting AL East this year all around don’t discount the blue jays making some noise and Boston will still be able to compete with their offensive lineup, the Yankees even with all the injuries now piling up on their pitching rotation even without Stanton their offense is potent so they will have to outslug everyone the consensus is Baltimore will be terrible but even they will be able to muster at least 5 wins against each team in the AL .
Rays first 33 games March/April to begin the season they will play (23) games against Yankees,Houston,Boston,Cleveland,Toronto.& Oakland so not exactly a cakewalk to begin the season for them.
This division will come down to whom will add that Impact Bat or Pitching after the All-Star Break to propel them.
If I were a betting man, I would bet against Baltimore getting 5 wins against each other team in the AL East. Against 3 of the 4, maybe they could do it, but they look to be a special kind of awful this year.
I said not to sleep on Boston a couple days ago. If they get any pitching whatsoever they will be a threat in the AL East. Look at 2018:
– Catchers hit somewhere in the .500 mark in OPS. A good chance they will surpass that in 2020.
– Little production from 2B in 2018. Over .700 OPS will be a slight improvement.
– Devers could be the 2018 version of Betts. Verdugo, if healthy, will be better than 2018 Devers.
– JBJ will not have to face lefties with Pillar on the team. Expect numbers in CF to improve.
– Michael Chavis is the wild card in the lineup. Hitting wise could be Brock Holt or better.
Red Sox’ hitting gives them a fighting chance.
What does Mookie have to do with Chris Sale. Jeff Todd is a complete and total moron.
This site sucks since Jeff Todd started writing his idiot columns.
Sox definitely need to watch the waiver wire for pitching.
Man, that’s terrible. It’s like the plague for good pitchers this year. And without Price, this is gonna hurt the Red Sox pretty badly. Hopefully Sale can come back soon and get back into form.
Announcing he’s starting on the IL because of “pneumonia” now seems highly suspicious. Not to mention Sale usually only gets 2 to 4 starts in spring trainings in recent years anyway. The whole thing comes across as an obvious excuse for something deeper.
The illness delayed his program
Sure, but he usually has an abbreviated spring program anyway to save wear one his arm. He usually only has a couple spring starts anyway. Unless he’s extremely ill for several more weeks it still is weird to announce he’s on the IL already.
The illness delayed his program
I am a bit skeptical. I suspect the pneumonia is just an excuse to hold him back. Its not a big deal, why bother having him pitch in miserable April weather if there is any doubt of his health.
That perhaps is the biggest problem. That there is doubt despite missing a bunch of games last year and having all winter to rest and rehab.
In any event, what happens happens. Expectations are low for the team and Sale. I suspect the team might surprise. Betts was good but they have some pretty good offensive players. They just need some surprises on the pitching side of things. You really cant predict baseball one way or another
I just hope Covid-19 doesn’t disrupt baseball like 1918. Come to think of it 1918 was a good year for the Red Sox
There’s no way they come close to the Yankees though.
I still say Yanks will regret signing Cole eventually…
You can say that a few times each year for a few years and then if it doesn’t happen you’ll want to stop and pretend you never said it.
But when the last year of the contract arrives and Cole’s not what he is now, he’s gonna shout “I told you so!!!”
Even a broken clock is right twice a day and he’s just playing to probability and hope. Ignore, Mo, I t’ll only get worse each year because the probability of it coming true increases. We can say that about any long term contract, like Sale, Price, eovaldi, etc…and it’ll eventually be true.
Lol Mo, good one 🙂
Pwndroia – totally agree!! Cole may be good a few years, but $324,000,000 over 9 years (36,000,000 per year) is way too big a risk. Yankees have a history – Teixeira, Ellsbury, Burnett, even Sabathia 2014 to 2019 way under performed their contracts
Cole will be 39 when his contest ends. Look at Sabathia’s age 34 to 39 years for comparison. As good as he was with Cleveland, the end of his Yankee contract was pretty average or at least not worth the salary. Most WAR is generated before age 32. Still I would have liked to have kept Jon Lester.
But Sale / Price were not? Look, everyone can say that about every team, but the Yankees and Red Sox and other big-market teams moreso for the obvious reasons. Red Sox talking about long-term Yankee contracts are pot and kettle.
Yankees didn’t get him for the last part of his contract, they got him to win championships in the first half. It just took giving him the last half to land him and they were desperate for pitching.
Bartolo colon reunion or bust
That didn’t end well the first time around. While it seems like a lifetime ago I don’t see Big Sexy coming back to Fenway.