Braves left-hander Chris Sale just had a tremendous bounceback season. He made 29 starts with a 2.38 earned run average, earning a National League Cy Young award. He was largely injured and/or ineffective from 2019 to 2023, which had him pondering retirement.
“I thought that it was gonna be my last year,” Sale said to the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast about where he was at before getting traded to Atlanta. “So I went into that offseason on a mission like ’one more year left.’… ’cause in my mind, I wasn’t walking away from baseball. I was walking away from getting hurt.”
The Red Sox traded Sale to Atlanta for Vaughn Grissom in December of 2023. At the time, as mentioned, he had been battling significant injuries for five years. Tommy John surgery in 2020 was the big one but Sale also had a stress reaction in his ribs, a fractured finger, a broken wrist suffered in a bicycle accident and a stress reaction in his shoulder blade over that span. He had a 4.16 ERA in 298 1/3 innings over those five seasons.
2024 was the final year of his extension with the Red Sox and the mounting injuries apparently had him looking towards hanging up his spikes. But he was traded to Atlanta, signed an extension that covered 2024 and 2025 with a club option for 2026, and then went on to have an excellent season in 2024. It makes for an interesting “what if” but Sale is clearly in a better spot now. The injury bug hasn’t left him entirely alone, however. He missed the final two weeks of 2024 due to back spasms and was also left off Atlanta’s postseason roster. 2024 was still a big improvement over prior years but time will tell if he can keep the good health going into his age-36 season.
Some more spring training tidbits from the NL East…
- It was reported earlier this week that Mets righty Frankie Montas has a lat strain and will be shut down for six to eight weeks. The righty is apparently a bit more optimistic than his club, however. He told members of the media today, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, that he’s already feeling better from his platelet-rich plasma injection and expects to be throwing again in four to six weeks. That’s still a notable period of time but it’s a bit less dire than the other timeline. He had a 4.84 ERA last year and then signed a two-year, $34MM deal with the Mets this winter. He will have the chance to opt out after the first year, though returning healthy and productive will be important if he is to consider that possibility. For now, the Mets’ rotation mix includes Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Clay Holmes, Paul Blackburn, Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill.
- Nationals outfielder James Wood has some quad tendinitis, per Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. It doesn’t bother him when he hits, so he’s been able to take batting practice but has skipped some defensive drills. Per Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com, Wood says he has “zero” concern but the club did send him for an MRI, which showed no structural damage. With still over a month before Opening Day, there’s plenty of time to get things in order, with Wood and the Nats both surely hoping for a clean bill of health by then. Now just 22 years old, Wood hit .264/.354/.427 in his major league debut last year and is slated to be a big part of the club’s future.
Not to nitpick but there was a 2025 team option on Sale’s Red Sox extension contract at a very friendly $20M.
Which makes the trade even more lopsided than people realize.
I dont think Sale makes 20 starts this year. An injury prone pitcher who is only getting older won’t all of a sudden become super healthy. He was even left of a playoff roster, their CY young.
Sour – Sure the timing of the injury sucked, but everyone knows without Sale they don’t even contend for a playoff spot last year.
And I’m pretty sure every MLB pitcher is getting older ;O)
I understand he missed a lot of time in BOS, but look at his injuries. Mainly, a TJS he had at 30 y/o (older age than most TJS meaning longer recovery time), which in part, was elongated b/c of 2020 COVID season, making getting back to 100% difficult. Then there was the right rib stress fracture and the 2 freak injuries: right wrist (bicycling) & pinkie injury (comebacker).
It also should be noted that while he was not available for the postseason, ATL lost both 2 games in wild card series vs. SD, and had they won 1 game forcing a G3, he was reportedly set to go, according to AA. Yes, while he was not ready for postseason, it also was a very early exit from a beleaguered team decimated by injuries.
He would have started game 1 had they advanced to the next round, calm down Margaret.
I’m sure a lot of fans (and the Red Sox organization) didn’t see that elite season from Sale coming though.
I’m sure that, had that deal never been made, Sox fans would have been thrilled with Sale making 22 or 23 starts and winning 12 or 13 games. Especially after all the injuries.
Craven – True, but most of us did think 30 starts and a 3.00 ERA was possible as the #1 on the staff.
Especially with Bailey the God as the new pitching coach ;o)
Another RunDMC post showing his lack of baseball knowledge.
Dude has me on ignore but I’ll expose him again to the rest of you who aren’t fragile snowflakes.
Sale wasn’t on the postseason roster but apparently according to RunDMC Sale was “ready to go” for Game 3 of Atlanta had won one of the first two games? Only in RunDMC’s mind does that make any sense at all considering being left off the roster makes him ineligible for Game 3.
Another day another time RunDMC gets rekt. It’s a shame I beat him into such submission he has me on ignore though. How’s he ever gonna learn anything? I guess someone else will have to inform him Sale couldn’t pitch Game 3.
Is this satire or are you really that confident in being wrong?
Come on let’s be honest most of us were happy to get rid of his contract with the amount of injuries that he had over about a four or five year span. It’s easy to be Monday morning quarterbacks now that he did very well but almost everyone I knew was willing to give him up for anything.
I suppose I was in the minority. I wasn’t happy about the trade at all. When healthy, he’s always been one of top starters in baseball. Personally, I thought they gave up on him too early.
Except the Red Sox didn’t even get rid of the contract because they ate all but $1MM. The return being a guy who’s now a DFA candidate makes it even worse
I wasnt happy about the trade either. Sale is a competitor and even between injuries he showed he could still get batters out. I am actually happy for Sale that he “found it” again but am disappointed it wasnt in a Red Sox uniform.
First Sale and now watch the numbers O’Neill puts up out of that dump of a ballpark. Breslow is unqualified but RedSox fans are entitled so they’ll never get it. What they are doing to Devers tells you all you need to know about that team
@Youjust
What exactly are they doing to Devers?
From my perspective, he’s acting selfish by saying, even maybe demanding, he play 3B, even though he was a negative value player defensively at that position last year.
A true team player would move to a new position, if told to do so, if it’s better for the team. Kinda like Betts did last year.
Scott – Except it wasn’t a “new” position for Mookie, he was a star 2B before converting to OF with the Red Sox because Pedroia had 2B locked down.
And Mookie also had SS experience with the Red Sox organization.
BTW – I hate having to agree with BITA/Joel. LOL!
yeah but sales long injuries were kinda flukey and weird with the red sox, not structural problems. and the injury at the end of the year was back spasms, he would’ve been ready by the division series, bad timing.
PED use by Montas paid off big. Since traded in ’22, he is cashing 10s of millions every season to either be on the IL or below average. How do teams not realize w/o that misleading success, he is not good?
I could be completely outside the wire here, but I think he got lazy once he made decent cheese. To be fair, I know nothing. Just a gut call, and I can’t give testimony as to “why” outside of my eyes. Maybe he is just persistently hurt and I would feel like a D for thinking this way… good point on the PED stuff though!
Boy, I’d sure love to have James Wood and Jarlin Susana right about meow…
Cease and King, Vásquez and Brito aren’t bad though. Of course, what SD had for 24 and even the 22 run.
I’m ok with how things shook out. There may ultimately be more to get for Cease / King at deadline.
Susana was the player I hated to see go the most – just had that feeling about him and still do but, still a suspect for now.
Wood – report of quad tendinitis is troubling for a 22 year old big CFer. Thinking of a similarly built Padre about 10 years ago that his body prevented his development – Kyle Blanks. Also, Stanton and even Judge a little bit come to mind.
Not wishing anything on an exciting young player because I want to see him play.
Have to give value to get value so if a couple of those guys turn into elite players (even if for a short window) then, good for them.
Love to project on prospects as a fan and SD has been loaded the past few years but the real fun is waiting to see how they develop. Most don’t.
Still can’t believe the Mets lit 34 million dollars on fire. Montas had to be a toss in to boras to get more good will in the Soto sweepstakes
That montas contract is so insane
The Mets could have had Stroman for a handshake and a pat on the back to Cashman
Why did the Mets choose Montas over Sevy? Crazy choice. Mets still have Stroman.