Star Red Sox lefty Chris Sale is slated to undergo an MRI on his elbow, skipper Ron Roenicke tells reporters including Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald (via Twitter). At this point, the outlook isn’t known.
Sale reported soreness in the joint after throwing. He had dealt with some arm woes late last year, but seemed to be at full arm health as camp opened. Sale was delayed by illness, but the expectation was that he’d be able to ramp up as normal — just on a slight delay.
The results of the MRI will be sent to famed surgeon Dr. James Andrews for analysis. That’s alarming, at first glance, given that Andrews is known for performing so many Tommy John surgeries. That said, it’s also an obvious and sensible decision, given that the orthopedist treated Sale last season and is therefore intimately familiar with his medical situation.
There’s no reason to rush to judgment. But the situation is obviously concerning for a Boston organization that is entering an interesting and uncertain season. Just days ago, Sale told MLB.com that his arm felt good. Now, there’s sufficient cause for imaging.
Sale’s importance to the Red Sox largely goes without saying. The long-time ace is not only a key component of the rotation, but will occupy a big chunk of the team’s spending for the next several years. The extension he signed this time last year guarantees $145MM in salary from 2020 through 2024.
Sale might be worth moving back to the pen at this poiny
*point
That’s a lot of bread for a long relief guy.
if he’s otherwise not playing you’re getting even less value.
Time to sale…
He’s heading for TJ surgery, should’ve been last yr.
I agree Pasha. Should have scheduled TJ at end of last year if MRI shows structural damage.
Right after they put pen to paper, these guys turn to glass
If his arm is not healthy enough to start, he can’t relieve, either.
Not with Boston’s medical team. That’s why they felt Graderal could relieve but not start. I’m being sarcastic of course.
Maybe Ron Roenicke will take a page out of Craig Counsell’s playbook, and make Sale a ten pitch or less opener…
At least he would be worth something. He isn’t worth ace money.
No
They are not in the discussion anyway to compete in the division or wild card, so won’t matter either way
this is where he turns into Frank Tanana or Jamie Moyer
Yeah, no. Sale is a power pitcher. He’s never been a Jamie Moyer type. I don’t see him developing a new talent for finesse to overcome his loss of velocity.
I never understood this extension. He always struck me as a guy who would fade fast, and I think we’re seeing it. I would have rather seen the money go to Porcello, who has the talent and make-up to last through his ‘30’s. Maybe at a lower AAV.
I think everybody in Red Sox Nation felt the same way. To pick him up in trade I thought it would be great for a couple years and then let him go. That herky jerky motion and thin frame didn’t spell long-term success and everyone knew it.. even while with the White Sox.
Sale’s contract is probably a big reason Dombrowski got fired.
@Gary,
Agree. I’m not usually right about these things, but the Sale extension seemed obvious to me. I think most Sox fans agreed.
Same with Eovaldi. I think he deserved a “thank you” contract, but not the one he got.
Sale is a top 10 ace in MLB if he’s healthy. I don’t agree with bloated MLB salaries but it’s actually right where it should be with current contracts considered.
Why blame DD? Ownership had to sign off and who knows, they could have directed it. DD brought a winner to Boston and who knows about 17 had the Astros not cheated. Boston has as much to complain about as NY or LA.
Us Sox fans can complain about the Astros after our 2018 team is exonerated. Until then, we gotta keep our heads down on that one.
Tanana threw harder than Sale and developed a finesse game due to injury. Did it a bit younger, but still, it can certainly happen.
Giving pitchers long term contract is way to risky. Besides Verlander there is not many that has held up for more than 5 years.
And Sherzer, Degrom probably will too
Even grienke
Maddux
Lester (2009 and 2015). Pedro (1997). C.C. Sabathia (2009).
I’d include Kershaw in this list, signed in 14′ and he is still putting up great seasons. And don’t tell me that “he’s washed” narrative, because if you can still put up a 3.00 era with close to 200 strikeouts your good / great. BTW his hr/9 last year was 1.4 when for almost all his other years it was below 1, if MLB unjuices the ball this season, then Kershaw will float around a mid 2 era with more strikeouts, and a lowered hr/9 (obviously). So I’d say that’s a good long term contract.
Agreed
You have to give them 7 year deals to pay for their best 3 or 4. That’s just the way it is. You have to have pitching to compete.
What do you mean not many pitchers have held up more than 5 years? With the exception of Koufax, every HOF pitcher had a career that held up more than five years. Hundreds of pitchers have had careers that lasted 15, 18, 20 years, and performed into their late 30’s early 40’s.
Now, if you want to argue that few maintain Ace-level pitching for five or more years after entering FA, that’s a stronger argument. I think in a lot of cases, longer contracts are better for b-level starters—your Porcellos and your Lowes and your Wakefields. Those guys, who never maintain excellence for long, but seem to maintain adequacy forever, are better bets for long FA contracts.
Say goodbye to the HOF !
White Sox looking good now on this trade !
Eh, yeah but it was worth it for the redsoxs who won a championship.
We got World Series we would not have had without Sale. Trade to get him was good. Extension TBD
I’d say it was a win win trade, both teams are happy. Even if Sale nevervpitches again, all of that wasted money is on the extension, not the trade. Why are some White Sox fans so obsessed with trying to claim a win on a trade 3 years later?
I really like the White Sox’ return, but even if Moncada and Kopech hadn’t worked out, I wouldn’t regret the idea of trading Sale. They were going nowhere with him. Part of me wonders if they could have gotten Soto and Robles from the Nationals, but hindsight is 20/20. Thankfully, Moncada looks like a stud and Kopech still has TOR talent and appears to have made a full recovery from TJS. As for the Red Sox, that title will stay with them forever, so I doubt they really regret it. It’s the extension that’s becoming the problem.
Of course rest did not work – bad idea. This will not end well. The Sox have mishandled the matter of Sale’s health.
Always pointing fingers and blaming. How did the Red Sox mishandle this?
“Oh, my elbow hurts.. time for Tommy John surgery the next day? They handled it correctly and not competing this year you don’t go under the knife immediately.
Plus the man himself probably felt the pressure of the big contract and didn’t want to go under the knife right away. He has to agree to the process himself you know.
Doctor Gary, you think handing $145 million to a pitcher with a track record of breaking down in August, not to mention his slight build and age, is responsible? Spare me your sanctimony (I’ll give you a moment to look up that word) … the Sox badly mishandled the matter of Sale’s health.
Oh you’re changing it from mishandling his health to mishandling the contract they gave him? That’s called being Shifty. You can look that up.
Well the contract I’m in agreement with you.., the health handling, you’re out of your mind.
Rabbit ears…..
… nice use of “rabbit ears,” Ghost. Great heckle.
Where are all the Sox fans who last week were laughing at Severino needing TJS?
Oh, they’re too busy crying? Got it.
You’re ridiculous.
I don’t recall any Sox fans laughing at that
Right, strawman…
Actually on that post virtually all Red Sox fans were offering condolences and didn’t like seeing a young ace injured.
Kinda showing your own colors, aren’t you.
Obviously Severino’s injury made me more optimistic about the Sox’ chances in 2020. But I wasn’t “laughing” then, and I’m not “crying” now.
Yankee fans, classless as always.
@JDGoat I’ve actually seen a couple on here who seem like rational, respectful fans of the game. In prior years, I’d have agreed with you, but this year, it’s the Cubs fans who have been the most classless, imo, crapping on everything the White Sox have done, every move by another team in the NL Central, and just taking out their frustration with their own team on everyone else.
As a Yankee fan I HATE to see this happen. I have ALWAYS been a Sale fan going back to his days with the White Sox. Hope he can recover without surgery, and quickly. Would love to see him pitch at top form again.
Looks like shutting it down in August & PRP therapy has not worked. It seems clear that he hasn’t been right for some time. Best case scenario is shut it down + rest rinse and repeat. Hope is running out of time.
THEY SHOULD HAVE KEPT MOOKIE BETTS!!! hahaahhfa lmao
Because he can pitch?
No, you’re thinking is absolutely backwards. Because of this they definitely should have traded Mookie Betts. Why you going to keep him in a lame duck year and watch him walk in October?
Everyone knew he’d need surgery at some point anyways which is why extending him for so much money was a stupid idea to begin with.
Agreed. I think they were just afraid of another Jon Lester Fiasco. Crazy.
Not Good! Sale has been hurt for two years now and I never believed this pneumonia BS. He is injured and Genius Bloom has a thin rotation to begin with. I have been saying it that this team is Dead on Arrival! This is going to be a real bad year.
Why are you ragging on Bloom? He’s been there like 20 minutes. Give it a rest, will you?
Seems like surgery now or surgery when he fully tears it
Maybe the Dodgers would consider trading Price to the Red Sox
Unfortunate if Sale can’t stay healthy. The Red Sox would be a contender for the playoffs with him healthy and dealing.
Considering what everyone knew even in Chicago, we could never ever count on that from the very beginning since he got here. Seriously.
A starting pitcher suffering an injury should be expected. Boston needed a stud as David Price stopped pitching like an ace after signing that contract with Boston. Sale did just that in 2018 and they won the WS. We can armchair this to death but they cashed in a ring.
This is clearly an attempt to get more votes for Biden. How come all these pitchers who couldn’t beat the Astros are getting injured? Suspicious.
TJ guaranteed. Bosox out of it before the season starts. Time for a 5-year rebuild!
I mean, if this was going to be a bridge year anyhow, I guess TJS for Sale is better now than later.
Without Sale, it would have been tough to compete, with or without Mookie and Price. They won’t throw the towel in completely (the market won’t allow it), but expect a bit more “reimaging” as the season goes on.
Everyone knew last Sept that he should have had TJ but no….now he will be out to mid 2021.
Wow, this is horrible news for Boston. This elbow injury is going on two years now. Seems like TJS is all but guaranteed here unless Sale just wants to muddle through more seasons of pain and IL stints. The Red Sox pitching situation has gone from concerning to an unmitigated disaster. They should sign multiple FAs to minor league deals now (Salazar, McHugh, even Harvey) and see if they can get one of them back to form. A full year without Sale means doom for this team. A .500 record would be an accomplishment. I see a big sell off coming at the trade deadline and much like the Patriots, the Red Sox dynasty could be over. At least we still have the Celtics & Bruins to look forward to! #bummedinbeantown
Um, the Red Sox never had a dynasty. The only dynasty this century was the Giants. 3 WS in 5 years. You don’t have a dynasty peppering your titles with last place finishes and spreading your titles out 4/5 years apart. Sorry. The Sox have had it great winning 4 in 16 years (kudos!) but not a dynasty.
Agree. To be a “dynasty,” it needs to be the same core of players that keeps on winning. The 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018 teams all were very different from one another.
The TJS era continues. It will continue as long as FOs rate Average Pitch Velocity so high. Greg Maddux’s APV was 86mph at the tail of his career. It peaked at 93mph. Pitchers like Grienke are still successful and show that you dont have to throw 98mph to get MLB batters out. You actually can just “pitch”.
…
Hope the best for Sale, but those fastballs and hard sliders wreak havoc on the elbow/UCL.
Tommy John, the MLB pitcher who first had UCL surgery and had the procedure name after him was not a hard thrower prior to his operation. Just saying…
Time to bring Bucholz back
LOL a prospect from 15 years ago
Bring in Kazmir too while you’re at it
Bucholz is a cheap free agent lol
Sale is going to become the highest paid closer!
By the way, us White Sox fans still thank the Red Sox organization with taking Sale for Moncada, Kopech and Basabe!
Don’t thank them yet. Wait til after the White Sox win a World Series victory with those guys. Red Sox already got theirs with Sale.
Sale had nothing to do with the Red Sox winning in the World Series in 2018. Sale was complete garbage in the second half of the season and was hardly used in the playoffs. Let’s not forget the Red Sox’s 2018 World Series will always have the dark could over them with Cora being the manager and some being behind the scandal with the Astros.
I was one of the few White Sox fans that hated Sale. Sale did have great first half numbers and just faded at the end of July. Sale depended too much on his slider to get them strikeouts where his arm was dead by the end of July. Numbers don’t lie!
Cooper tried to tell Sale to lay off that slider and he would not listen to him.
This is my shocked face
If he needs TJ surgery this is a horrible miscalculation by the Red Sox.
This should have been done last year if there was any thought it could get to this point.
Huge miss by the yanks with sevy and the Sox with sale
Smh
With the money invested in these starting pitchers it is only a matter of time before there are no starting pitchers and teams use their Triple A teams to help rotate 15 man pitching staffs. In this scenario similar to the way the Rays and others have used openers no pitcher goes more than 2 innings and pitch several times a week. Inexpensive young pitchers will roll through games an inning or two at a time and be systematically temporarily replaced by fresher arms ‘resting’ in Triple A or on DL. Organizations will develop pitchers differently than they do today. Pitchers will be trained to be more productive in shorter stints rather than stretched out for longer appearances. You just can’t sustain success with 5 year 150 million contracts on unreliable assets. Use the staff to hold teams to 4 runs and build up the batting order to consistently score 5. It is More reliable to give the money to Mookie instead of wasting it on price and sale.
*The long-winded version of: hitting wins games, not pitching*
By this logic, either the Angels or Twins will win the World Series. Bold prediction, let’s see what happens
I couldn’t agree with you more Ramon Garciaparra. the Tampa model of using pictures for two innings at a time is looking more and more like the way to go for most baseball teams going forward. for the reasons you very eloquently outlined. and yes you’re right there was just too much risk in a long-term contract. especially for pitchers
Do I really need to point out that so much of Tampa’s success will hinge on the health of Snell and Glasnow, as well as actually getting the expected production from Morton? If healthy, their rotation consisted of 3 guys getting top 10 CY votes. A similar rotation to Tampa, the Nats. Both teams are built on upper echelon starting pitching, that’s why they win. Maybe baseball goes in the direction you suggest, but Tampa is not the prime example here
This ends any debate about whether or not reading Mookie was the right move.
yes absolutely agree with you moving mookie was a really smart move because you would have paid him over 400 billion dollars and and then open to an even bigger risk. Not to mention they got something for him.
I’m going to go out on a limb and assumed Mookie Betts thinks he’s worth 400 billion. and yes I said billion not million. he might be the first billion dollar man. LOL
What a shame. I loved watching Sale work. Best of luck to him.
Really hoping he doesn’t need TJS. I watched him for years with the White Sox and believe he’s the best active pitcher to have not won a CY. Hoping this string of injuries stops for him soon because I’d like to see him finally win it.
They’re going to have to tagteam him with Bogarts to make a deal happen
Fat chance of that. Besides, we don’t even know yet that this will require surgery. I agree the Red Sox probably need to start a rebuild, but this would be selling awfully low on Sale and packaging him in would greatly reduce the prospect return.
Just another of effect of Dave Dumbroksi coming in raiding the entire farm system way over paying and getting ran out of town. He could never been a team that sustains.
rebuild!
The Red Sox are in trouble. The Chris Sale extension was a mistake. At least both got a World Series title together. Now it’s up to the White Sox, Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech to at least duplicate that championship on their side of that blockbuster trade.
Sales is done! Tremendous millage on that arm of his that has finally conked out.
Watching the RS getting pounded by the Evil Empire, n thinking with this cast of characters it’s gonna baba looooong season, especially with nervous Nellie being the manager. I hope this cheating thing hurried up n get resolved so Cora can return. An entire yr of Renoke taking out pitchers out enuff to put you asleep. Chris needs TJ just have him get it ASAP to return next yr.
cora should be banned from baseball after the investigation is over, he won’t be coming back. guy cheated with two different organizations in back to back years.
Nothing has come down about the RS YET. Just sayin….who knows what bad decisions Cora made in Boston after coming from Houston. Doesn’t mean he should be banned for life. Ppl make bad choices. Personally I think Pete Rose should be given mercy n a HOF tix.
Nobody knows if he needs TJS yet, but there are so many doctors on here saying he does.
You’re right – too many damn drs. I grew up in the 50’s watching BB. & saw pitchers go 250-350 innings pitched. Guys like Carlton, Ryan, Niekro, Ford, Perry Brothers etc, on & on. Now we have 5 innings or 100 pitch max. Too much weight lifting – sports folks want to look buff for the sports calendars. Look at Maris’s arms back in the day – strong but not muscular. Lousy team training. As soon as they discovered TJ surgery it’s an everyday thing. Look how meds control all our lives now. Yeah, if I take all my meds I’ll live to be 100, crapping myself falling down in front of my loved ones & never getting a full nights sleep. Great
“No reason to rush to judgement…” might be realistic advice for anyone else, but given Sale’s recent health history, it’s whistling past the graveyard here. A rotation that had only 4 starters counting on 3 who couldn’t be reasonably expected to put up 30 quality starts was ridiculous. With a terrible free agent class coming, I’d like to see them start planning for 2022 and extend/trade everybody who isn’t under team control for more than 2 years for upper-level prospects/younger major leaguers.
Will he cut up the images if he doesn’t like how it looks?
this is a very puzzling development. Chris Sale went to see dr. Andrews during last season and was given a clean bill of health as far as the need for Tommy John surgery goes. so if it’s determined that he needs Tommy John surgery now they wasted at least 6 months or more time. I am going to assume that everything’s fine with his elbow and that they’re just double-checking things but if there is something wrong and I were John Henry I’d be Mighty angry with the form of diagnosis and the contract extension that Chris Sale got from Dave Dombrowski
Murphy’s Law…..
So it would have been better to keep Price and include Sale instead? This is obviously a hindsite thing so my intention isn’t to be overly critical. I just wanted to say it out loud.
He wouldn’t have passed the physical.
Such a shame all the TJ surgery any more, seems like today’s players while in better shape have far more injuries than players from 70s and before. But back then they were finished if a injury like this occurred.
I wish him only the best, not a Boston fan but as a baseball fan I prefer to see all teams fielding their best players
Guys throw max effort on nearly every pitch, probably throw more pitches over the year (including offseason) and have more breaking pitches than before. Not to mention how many “miles” those arms have on them when they make it to the bigs. They didn’t work like that in the past.
It’s not super surprising. The human arm wasn’t made for that kind of workload.
Well it’s going to be a good year for the Sox.