The Boston Red Sox will be without starting pitcher Chris Sale until at least June. The team announced they would be placing the left hander on the 60 day injured list with a right rib stress fracture.
The injury marks the second consecutive season the 7x All-Star will begin the year on the injured list. The 33 year old started just 9 games in 2021 as he continued rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.
In his 9 starts in 2021, Sale was highly effective going 5-1 with a 3.16 ERA while striking out 52 batters across 42.2 innings.
A recent MRI showed progress, however the 2018 World Series Champion is still a ways away from ramping up baseball activities. “The bone is healing, everything is shrinking, the edema is going away. So, yeah, good news,” Sale told reporters Saturday.
Manager Alex Cora echoed Sale’s statement adding “So I think now it’s just a matter of seeing how he feels…There’s an improvement, and we feel good about it. But obviously we need to see how he reacts to treatment and keep building from there.”
While it’s unlikely Sale will be on the shelf for the full 60 days, the 6’6” hurler will still need to be built back up after missing Spring Training. Because of the offseason lockout, Sale and several other Boston pitchers set up their own “minicamp” at Sale’s alma mater, Florida Gulf Coast University. The two time AL strikeout leader reportedly suffered the injury while throwing live batting practice at the camp.
As a condition of the lockout, Sale was unable to have any contact with the Red Sox front office or coaching staff, meaning the club was unaware their pitcher had suffered an injury until after the new CBA was ratified.
Across 11 MLB seasons, Sale has posted a 3.03 career ERA with 2,059 strikeouts through 1672.1 innings pitched. Amongst his many achievements, the lefty holds the MLB record for best career strikeout to walk ratio (5.33), most immaculate innings (3) and quickest pitcher to 2,000 career strikeouts (achieved in 1626 innings).
Sale signed a 5 year $145M contract extension with Boston in March of 2019 and remains under contract with the Red Sox through the 2025 season. Boston will open up their 2022 campaign against the Yankees on Thursday April 7th.
Photo: Keith Allison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.