Chris Sale Faces Another Serious Injury; How Was Rotation Ever Going To Work?
The Boston Red Sox announced that ace Chris Sale would be transferred to the 60-day injured list on Friday afternoon ahead of a very important three-game set with the New York Yankees.
MassLive's Sean McAdam reported the injury is a stress reaction in his shoulder blade.
Sale left a start against the Cincinnati Reds last week with what was described as left shoulder inflammation. At the time the team was hopeful he would only miss a few outings, but clearly, that ship has sailed.
While I feel awful for Sale, and genuinely hope he gets through this stretch as smoothly as possible, it's hard to say his missing time was to be unexpected this season.
Sale was coming off a season where he only made two total starts after being hit in the hand with a line drive and then reportedly breaking his wrist after falling off a bike.
The timing of this injured list stint couldn't be worse either. In the six starts since getting rocked in a late April outing against the Baltimore Orioles (nine hits, five earned runs, zero strikeouts), Sale had a 2.25 ERA, a .191 batting average against and genuinely looked like the ace version of himself that we had been used to seeing in the earlier stages of his Red Sox career.
Now, the Sox rotation is left without an ace. Without an identity. And without any real expectations as the team has fallen under .500 for the first time since April 28.
There were major concerns with this rotation from the jump. Sale's injury history. Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock having yet to prove that they can be legitimate starters. Brayan Bello, while being their most promising option, still only having very minimal experience in the big leagues. Corey Kluber's productive days being past him. James Paxton coming off of Tommy John surgery. And Nick Pivetta proving to be, well, an average option at best. This is what your rotation was heading into 2023. Not to mention Bello and Whitlock beginning the year on the injured list.
It's probably not fair to say Chris Sale missing time was inevitable, but did you really feel any different heading into this season? Admit it, we all expected this to happen.
There's no denying the impact Sale has had on this franchise since arriving from the Chicago White Sox. He was very dominant in 2017, and helped you win a World Series in 2018, but has left Sox fans wondering what could have been for the majority of his five-year extension that was signed after that title run.
Before agreeing to his contract extension in 2019, Chris Sale had averaged 30 starts a season since he became a full-time starter in 2012. Since signing that new deal with the Red Sox, Sale has made a total of 47 regular season starts. That's 64 starts less than the pace he had set in the previous seven seasons. Sale has been out for over two full seasons' worth of starts just in the last four years. And it's honestly felt even worse than that.
The bigger issue here remains the fact that the Red Sox thought or tried to convince the fans of thinking that this starting rotation was going to be able to compete for a postseason spot. They would have needed absolutely everything to go their way, and very little has worked out with this group of starters so far. Two starting pitchers from the Opening Day roster have been moved to the bullpen, one of them, in Corey Kluber, could be designated for assignment any moment now, we already know Sale won't pitch for two months, and the other three have question marks of their own.
It's a sad time to be a Red Sox supporter and it's hard to know when things will turn around. But the prospects though! There are always prospects.
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