Veteran southpaw Chris Sale discussed the possibility of reaching an extension with the Red Sox in an interesting chat with Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. The club has previously acknowledged some discussions, but Sale’s comments seemingly take things a bit further.
Sale suggests that there is a serious effort to work out an agreement.“I think we’re both mutually invested in this,” he said. “We’ve both said on both sides that it’s a possibility, for sure.”
He also indicated that he doesn’t consider a deal a necessity. “Obviously, this go-round is a little different than the last one with the contract situation,” Sale said in reference to his original contract extension. Sale says his family’s financial security was a driving force in that accord, but now affords him flexibility in deciding upon his next contract.
It’s still unclear what sort of structure is being considered — “we have a couple different scenarios,” Sale says — but the potential CBA tax impact will surely weigh heavily from the team’s perspective. It’s less clear just what will drive Sale when the time comes to make a final decision. While he indicates that he’s much more concerned with competing on the field than in the hot stove marketplace, he has previously made clear he does have a desire to “set the bar” for other players. Those looking to understand Sale’s perspective will certainly want to give Speier’s interview a full read.
[RELATED: Valuing A Chris Sale Extension]
It’ll be interesting to see where the sides land, if indeed a deal is hammered out. If not, Sale will enter the 2019 season as one of the most closely watched players on the planet. He paces a stacked group of starters in MLBTR’s initial power ranking of the top 2019-20 free agents.
Hey Harper, why don’t you reach out to Chris Sale?
Or Xander.
Get her done!!!!
i’d love X, but i also still like Segura a lot.
Why not both? Heck why not all the future free agents?
X is going to be a free agent? Hopefully he signs with the Fangraphs comments section.
Xander is gone. Gonna seek HUGE money but that is reserved for BETTS
Looks like you exercised your right to attempt a joke. Nice try.
Worked for me
6 years 200 million to stay in Boston.
33.3 mil per year
Way more than they can afford lol
They arent goijg to negotiate thinking they will pay him less then 30m
My guess would be 5 Years @ $35M Per Year With 2 Club Option Years @ another $25M Per Year bringing the possible total to $225M.
Sale will be 30 soon. A 5 year extension takes him through his age 35 plus those Option Years through age 37.
The Sox likely see an opportunity with the free agent marker leaving players scared to at least explore opportunities. In an extension, I think it’s likely the Sox get 7 years out of $200 mil at an AAV just under $30m. Much more comfortable there. Already laying out a ton for Price. Still gotta look at Betts and Martinez. There’s no way the Sox go over 30 aav and I’d not be shocked to hear 6/150 was all they went on an extension.
6/150 is barely more than Corbin got. You’re crazy if you think Sale is taking that deal.
Sale needs to sign the big extension before the major elbow injury.
Is he insurable? What cost? He can’t set the bar so to speak because as great aa he can be, he has baggage be it second half injuries or simply exhaustion. Given the Sox need to also try to re-sign Bogaerts and then Betts (not to mention what happens if JDM has a big injury and decides not to opt out?), a Harper type deal for extra years that lowers the average seems more likely. Personally, I’d let him play out the year and if he stays healthy, he prices himself out of Boston if he truly tgen wants to raise the bar. His season ending history is such that either he takes less or I’d let him walk.
Chris Sale continues to excel. Boston pantsed the White Sox in the trade that acquired him.
Lol, what? They got the #1 prospect and koepech lol.
Moncada can’t hit and can barely field. 217ks, .235 avg. 21 errors and a .1 dWAR. A 162 game average puts him at 233ks a year, .234 average. Sure he is young and could possibly turn it around. Kopech is out for all of 2019. All the while Chris Sale is 29-12, 2.56 ERA and averaging 272ks a year, 2 top 5 CYA placings in 2 years. Oh by the way, he is also a WS champ. Safe to say that the Red Sox won that deal huge!
they gave up the #1 prospect in all of baseball at the time i’m pretty sure so, not sure about fleeced. The fact that moncada hasn’t panned our yet doesn’t mean he won’t
Agree and when that deal was done, the 2 filler kids (Basabe, Diaz) were no slouches at the time of the deal. Diz a wild card arm in low A ball that threw 100mph and personally? Thought Kopech a bigger loss than Moncada. Might still be when eventually gets back from the TJ.
Starters who can hold 98-100mph heat with excellent secondaries are hard to find and that’s Kopech all over.
Moncada has shown he can’t hit a breaking ball, he showed that in his limited time with the Red Sox prior to being traded. There was a reason why Moncada was traded and not Benny.
The way the trade looks right now Boston has “won” the trade, but I do agree that Kopech is still the wild card, if and that’s a big if he comes back from TJ surgery and reaches his potential the White Sox could “win” this trade.
But in reality they both got what they were looking for in this trade, the Red Sox got the Ace they needed and they won a WS. The White Sox got young talent to start the rebuild off right.
The BoSox did well in the trade but you forget two things. Dumping salary and tanking to move up in the draft were also important to the white Sox. Trading Sale did that and we have to see how the high picks pan out.
CBT is going to operate more and more like a hard cap. I wonder whether we aren’t really seeing the beginning of a new era for the big market teams. They grab cost certainty where they can on extensions, and for those they can’t extend, they let go, because the incremental cost including the CBT is too high. Then, even top tier players like Sale not only have to be great, they have to find teams that have cap space for them.
They need to get a deal done with Sale. As he says he’s interested in a huge contract, but they need him! Without his pitching last yr they wouldn’t have started out 17/2, that basically got them going last yr.
Guarantee 150/5, vesting options at slightly lower AAV for 6 and 7 based on IP in years 4 and 5
I like this deal, only problem is his teammate, David Price makes more than this. Sale wants to set the bar, it’s going to have to get closer to 35 per
Lol, what? They got the #1 prospect and koepech lol.pretty sure price was a year younger.
Not sure what the package has to do with sale at all.
You think he’s taking $15M a year? lol
15? Guess you failed at math, buddy, 150/5 is 30 per not 15 lol
I’d be pretty surprised if he only accepts 5 years. This is his one chance to get a big contract. He will most likely push for 6 or 7 guaranteed years, as that is what he would get in free agency.
5 years ago (2014) Dave Dombrowski offered Max Scherzer a 6 year extension worth 144M. Dombrowski likes his Power Pitchers & will do all he can to keep them. He will trade or let other players walk to keep his Power Arms.
I believe the only reason the Tigers let him walk was because Illich was Mad at Boras. Dave may work out a deferred payment plan to try & stay closer to the threshold. He may also offer an opt-out after 2 or 3 years. Deals can be worked out & Dave is very good at what he does. Very Loyal.
Let’s see him stay healthy this year. Definitely troubling signs the past few years to make one wary of long term deals/high dollars. They can’t do anything until after the season or they are in for serious penalties.
Sale & the Red Sox can work out an extension without any penalties. No other Team can contact Sale or his agent until the end of the World Series.
Mutually invested in talks. Lol. I like it. Unlikely that they will be mutually agreeable on terms.
Some people are acting like Sale misses hundreds of starts. He threw 158 innings last year and probably could have thrown more if needed, plus he threw 200+ for three straight years before that. He’s an injury risk sure, but no more than any other MLB starter in my opinion.
But then again I’ve always loved the guy and I wish my team had five pissed off starters exactly like him.
My Closest Comparison would be to Randy Johnson & he pitched to age 45. I can see Sale going to or past age 40.
I want Kid Rick & Verlander back in Detroit where they belong to finish their careers.
It’s the combination of his frame and that delivery that causes concern for so many though.
Not really a comp out there to project longevity based on it, but it just seems like it has to put too much stress on the body long term
Johnson had the same Body Frame & he also put a lot of stress on his arm with about the same innings so far into their careers. Sale is worth a 5 year guaranteed contract with a couple of Team Options .
If Sale is staying in Boston, the contract’s AAV should be more than Price’s. That seems like a pretty y’all order for the Sox right now.
Both sides face risk in failing to complete an extension.
They would have won everything if they used Soupy Sales over the last six weeks, never mind Chris Sale……you really can’t tell anything about his innings last year; they could have sent him to Outer Mongolia on vacation, and it wouldn’t have mattered….
My guess (pure speculation) is that they let him go, and use their sheckles on Bogie (they always liked bats first, and Boegarts is only 27) and perhaps Porcello. Then decide if they want to give 400M to Betts or to Trout.
What? Porcello is fine but I’d let him walk. Was overpaid and not that good. You can tell a lot about his innings the last two years. He isn’t that great toward the end of the regular season. His arm is taxed and he’s not in the best of shape at the end. He wasn’t that great in the postseason. If the Sox extend him I hope there’s a injury clause because it’s going to happen. Also as it looks the Sox will barely have enough to sign boeharts and or betts
Sale’s the kind of guy that’ll sign for a “hometown discount” and he’s really just a simple/normal guy and if he and his family are happy in Boston my guess is that he signs on for whatever the Sox best offer is. I know that’s certainly a-typical this day in age for a player of his caliber — but just look at his last contract with the White Sox… he signed that knowing he was likely leaving a huge amount of $ on the table as well. Sale cares way more about being in a good situation and enjoying playing the game more than the typical FA SP and I’d be willing to bet he stays put. From the Sox $ perspective… I’m not sure they’ll be able to make the extension before the end of the season for salary tax penalty purposes. But after this season Porcello’s (stupid $22+ Million) contract is up so finding the money to reallocate to Sale shouldn’t be an issue at all beyond 2019’s Salary Cap/Tax implications. As long as he stays healthy I’d love to have him back (as a Sox fan) but I’m also not sure he’d be worth a ‘market-setting deal’ if I’m wrong about the ‘hometown discount’ thing — he’s clearly injury prone (or at least in the sense that he seems to wear down/out by the final month(s) of the season each year) so an aging Sale on a long-term high AAV isn’t something I’d be overly comfortable with – despite the fact that he may indeed be one of, if not the most dominant SP in baseball, when healthy, at least on a consistent (several years basis). Snell may have been better in 2018 but Sale has basically been at or near that level every year for the past 7 seasons. Still the trend of burning out in August/Sept each season and that any new deal will run through his mid 30’s would be worrisome if you’re talking $35M AAV over 5-7 years. I’d be a lot more comfortable with $25M over 5 (which is less than he can probably get on the open market) — BUT I truly believe he’s the kind of guy that values stability over purely just $. We shall see…
A quick 5 word reply to Sale taking a home town discount to stay near Harvard Yard and listen to Sweet Caroline for a few more years…..ITS ALWAYS ABOUT THE MONEY!
The ML players union will have something to say about him taking less than he should and you can spin it any way you want but he will exercise his right to get THE HIGHEST SALARY HE CAN to stay.
25 MM for 5 years? That’s not even close to a fair offer for Sale, lmao. Patrick Corbin did better than that with not even half the resume of Chris Sale.
Players seem to be smartening up and looking for extentions.. dont blame ’em
Watching these past 2 off-seasons…id be inclined as well….
Any updates on Trout to the Phillies?
It’s going to get real at this years deadline.
Would love to see the Red Sox sign Sale for say 6yrs/$200M+/- = $33M+/- AAV
Hate to say it, but Sale isn’t worth $30 million/year. He’s one of the top 3 in baseball, but you need baby him after July to last and he can’t pitch more than 6 innings
they just don’t make them like they used to
We still don’t know what was wrong last year so needing to baby him is crap. Think back to when he first came back and could have broke the record for Ks in a game but got pulled then went on the DL despite not showing signs of fatigue or injury during that game. Chris Sale would have pitched down the stretch but Red Sox management CHOSE to baby him. Why? Nobody knows except management. Expectations on this guy are completely out of whack. He came to us and dominated like we haven’t seen since Pedro. 2017 was an outstanding year and maintaining perfection isn’t easy. 308 Ks in 214 IP with an ERA of 2.90 and a FIP of 2.45. Those numbers deserve 30 M a year.
Sale is ELITE and reasonable. What a great combo!! Pay him what he wants and I would bet anything it won’t be unreasonable. We need his competitiveness and his team orientation, not to mention his incredible arm. There are only a half dozen to a dozen ELITE SPs in baseball and we have one of them. Try to deal for others and don’t let go of the one we have. Who knows, maybe Price will climb back into the ELITE category and Eovaldi’s 2018 will lead to a third ELITE SP on our staff. Wouldn’t that be great?
The Red Sox need to get away from the bad contracts that Ben Cherington put them in
Fatty Beltbucklebreaker, the Cubano that can’t hit represents close to 30 Million they can’t give to a useful guy like Sale
Castillo isn’t a problem – he doesn’t count for lux tax purposes. It is dead money, but the sox have plenty they can’t spend as it is. That is no concern for DD/Henry
Funny how the game as changed, even by perception only.
Chris Sale has never won 20 games in a season. He’s won 17 games – 3 times. And he’s on his way to making $30m a year. One of the best pitchers in baseball.
Finding money isn’t a problem, after this season you have off the books –
(Players you want to keep)
Sale – 15m
Bogey- 12m
Holt – 3.5m
Erod – 5m (I expect he declines player option)
(On the Bubble)
Porcello -21m
(Guys you should be letting go)
Pierce – 6.25m
Moreland – 6.5m
Nunez – 5m
Sandoval – 13m (because he’s owed another 5 in ’20)
You add that to what’s in surplus right now, that’s 80 mil to work with. You have to expect we can bring up a 1b off the farm. Maybe we can bring up someone to replace ‘cello as well.
If you can wrap up bogey around 20/21 aav, sale around 31/33aav, you’ve got 27m or so to cover arb raises, Erod, and Holt. Very doable.
The catching situation saves even more – vaz 3/4/6mil, Leon 2.5/arb, Blake 900k/arb/arb…
Next year either JD opts out and you throw bank at mookie, or, you make a tough and unpopular choice (just like garciaparra) and you pay a 1 year penalty knowing Pedey’s contract is off the books after ’21 and allocate is 13mil, plus mookie’s currently 20 to have 30-something aav to toss at him – and Pedey/JBJ walk as much as I like them both