With the Red Sox struggling, it will still be a while before two big reinforcements are back on the mound. Boston chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom told reporters (including The Boston Globe’s Julian McWilliams and MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith) today that Chris Sale’s rehab from a stress fracture in his ribcage has been delayed by another medical issue, one not related to baseball or to COVID-19. Sale has yet to resume throwing, and his return from the 60-day injured list is now expected for late June.
James Paxton is also dealing with some posterior elbow soreness, which is concerning since Paxton is just over a year removed from Tommy John surgery. That rehab was already expected to keep Paxton from returning until around June or July, though this latest soreness could very well push back Paxton’s timeline, even though the southpaw is expected to resume throwing soon.
Paxton signed a one-year “swellopt” contract with Boston prior to the lockout, which will pay the left-hander $10MM in guaranteed money in 2022, and potentially up to $32MM over the 2022-24 seasons depending on whether or not the Red Sox exercise a pair of club options. Naturally, the deal was signed with the knowledge that Paxton would miss a good chunk of the 2022 season, but Boston’s 10-17 record to date might change the equation. While there is still plenty of time left for the Sox to turn things around, falling too far back in the competitive AL East might lead Bloom and company to consider selling at the trade deadline.
Sale is no stranger to Tommy John recoveries, as a TJ procedure sidelined Sale for the entire 2020 season and delayed his 2021 debut until August. Since elbow problems also shut Sale down early in the 2019 campaign, the veteran lefty has pitched only 51 2/3 innings (in the regular season and postseason) since August 14, 2019.
Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha, and Rich Hill have all pitched very well in Boston’s rotation this year, while Nick Pivetta has struggled and Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck have split duties as both starters and relievers. Whitlock has been the better of the two, and Bloom said that Whitlock will be officially moved into the starting five while Hill is sidelined with a positive COVID-19 test.
Whitlock will start Tuesday’s game against the Braves, which will mark his fourth consecutive start. Thus far, Whitlock has been just about as dominant in the rotation as he has in the bullpen, with a 1.50 ERA over his first 12 innings as a starting pitcher. The Sox have been gradually building Whitlock’s pitch counts over those three starts, and he could now be close to being stretched out enough to operate in a more normal starting capacity.
Both Hill and Enrique Hernandez were placed on the COVID-related IL yeterday, though Hernandez was already activated today, as his symptoms weren’t coronavirus-related. In the corresponding move, Jarren Duran was optioned back to Triple-A after a one-game appearance in the Show. Duran tripled and walked as part of a 1-for-4 performance in Boston’s 4-2 loss to the White Sox last night.
Adam Duvall will be a great rebuilding piece for the Sox
Duvall for Bogaerts sounds good to me
Even better Bogaerts and Kiki for Duvall and Ozuna
I think I asked before, but that is Roberts brother, correct?
you sir must pass on whatever good stuff you are smoking
Maybe Mayer for Duvall since both franchises are rebuilding?
I see you’ve got jokes
Isn’t Duvall a low .200 hitter? No thank you, we have enough of those.
The Sale signing is looking for the worse every day. The Price signing hamstringed this team way too long, and I hate to see the Sale signing do the same…. Pitchers are getting too many years on those bloated contracts
bad – At least Price had no health concerns when he signed the contract, with Sale there were red flags everywhere the prior season. And some longterm contracts for pitchers do work out, Scherzer being one example.
Sale’s mechanics were a red flag for me. There was no way that throwing motion was going to age well.
Don – You’re 100% correct. A pitcher as tall and thin as him with a violent delivery like his will always be a high injury risk. I know some people point to Unit, but he was heavier and had a much smoother delivery.
At least Price had no health concerns when he signed
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I had no issue with the Price signing. Coming into 2016, we had very little dependability in the rotation. We had the very respectable ERod, Porcello, and Buchholz. We needed a #1. It was probably $1M/year too much, and one year too long, but for the right fit, sometimes it is okay to overpay.
Bro y’all won the World Series with him fronting your rotation… we all knew this would happen but it should be more than worth it if you get a ring out of it.
Nation – The trade was worth it.
It’s the extension that was foolish and unnecessary and has dragged down the team’s financial flexibility for many years. If that extension wasn’t signed, there’s a better chance of re-signing Mookie.
Mookie was leaving, even if they offered him 12/500MM. He hated Boston and has even called it racist.
Milt – Are you surprised? He observed several situations related to Price and was vocal about it. Vocal as a quiet guy like Betts can be. Between the big contract and him being deemed a trouble maker like Price, ownership chose to destroy the franchise and did. What people don’t understand is that DD planned to sign Mookie to a big contract so he had to go too. Once DD was gone Mookie knew there was no chance of him returning.
Mookie did the right thing. He stood up for Price since he thought he had the position within the organization to make a difference with ownership and they tossed him because they are all powerful.
Mookie’s in a better place now but fans paid the price and still are paying the price. Mayer and Yorke aren’t going to be at Mookie’s level. Their upside is closer to Bogey’s. That’s a compliment but suggesting they could be at Mookie’s level is such a stretch it’s not worth discussing.
The funniest thing about having owners who are racists is that they think by hiring a black women into an important job will erase all that they have done to be considered racists. It’s like when they told the public they were going to improve their diversity and they hired a know nothing bench coach with no experience at managing and proved they were diverse since he spoke two languages!!! haha What a joke this ownership has turned into after 20 great years of being admired. They should sell the team to Elon Musk. I’m sure any smart billionaire could figure out that hiring an inexperienced small market GM for Boston would be a HUGE mistake but not the current numb nuts. They threw away half a decade of chances at winning again and the longer they keep Bloom the longer the wait will be until we see another competitive team. I don’t mean a team that lucks into the playoffs, I mean a truly talented team like what Bloom inherited.
FPG – You are making stuff up again. Mookie couldn’t be kept in Boston after he confronted ownership over the treatment of black players on the team , specifically Price. He became persona non grata at that point and all the ownership wanted was to get him out of their sight.
The Sale extension had no CORA factor built into it so put the blame where it belongs. DD did the right thing and like so many other things Cora screwed it up. In season alterations to the mechanics is such a no no for any pitcher but for a guy with such a unique set of mechanics the end result of TJ surgery was a guarantee. That’s not a bad extension that’s a very bad manager. I believe nearly everyone agrees on that point finally!!
Bloom wasted $93MM in additional money that he has in 2022 and we have clowns like Paxton who won’t play, Hill who will be injured multiple times this year, Wacha who is already injured, Kiki .241 Hernandez, fifty crap players who have entered and exited the carosel and JBJ for more money after cutting him.
The slate is clean in 2023. Get a REAL GM in place by year end (start interviewing right now) and let the experienced and successful GM fix what Bloom broke. He can afford to keep Bogey, JD, Eovaldi, Story, Sale and he can trade Devers to replace the missing outfielder (preferably a CENTER FIELDER WHO HITS LEAD-OF). Story plays 3B, Bogey SS, get a 2B that is better than a .241 hitter, give Dalbec and Casas a chance to earn 1B. Hang on to Verdugo for another year or two until his arbitration years end and give Duran a chance to earn a spot in LF. With Sale, Eovaldi, Houck, Whitlock as the core of the pitching staff go get a 5th SP, a closer and find some better set-up relievers. This can all be done under the cap in 2023.
If we let Bloom have all that money to spend his track record says more mediocre players, lots of crap depth and no all-stars. 2023 is the most scary of all seasons since Bloom got hired. He can bury the franchise in 2023. He’s dug the grave already but his ineptitude at acquiring players will bury them if he’s around in 2023.
Trade Bogart Devers and JD plus Bradley and Kiké plus Story:)
Every time I read about Paxton’s contract I’m confused. Is it a pair of options for ’23 and ’24 as in, the Sox can exercise the ’23 option and watch him pitch, then decide on ’24? Or is it that after this season they have to decide on picking them both up at the same time and he would be under contract through 2024?
No, they have to either pick up both options (‘23 & ‘24) at the end of this year or let him go to free agency. Unless he has to have another surgery, I’d lean towards Boston exercising those options and having Paxton on the books for $16M/yr for 2023 & 2024. He’s their Eovaldi replacement.
I actually thought the option price was lower than $16M per year. (I seem to recall $12M per year). Perhaps there are some incentives in those numbers where each year can max out at $16M if he hits all of his incentives?
I misread the article. Paxton’s two year option is not worth $32M, it is only worth $22M. The $32M includes his guaranteed $10M for this season. I looked up the Paxton contract and Boston signed Paxton to a one year deal, where he is paid $6M in salary this season, but he has some sort of $4M option buyout that makes the value of his 2022 one year deal $10M guaranteed. Then if the Sox pick up his 2 year option at the end of the season, the total maximum value of the 3 year contract would be $35M. ($32M guaranteed with $3M in incentives). Perhaps they would spread out the $4M ‘buyout’ owed to him for this season over the 2 year option period, but from a CBT perspective, he’s on the books for $10M this year and the option would be valued at $22M total over 2 years with another $3M in incentives. So if I’m Boston, I’d definitely pick up that 2 year option for a CBT value of $11M per year (potentially $12.5M per year with incentives), so long as Paxton is fully healthy and ready to go for the 2023 season.
If they pick up the options it’s $26 mill guaranteed for ’23 & ’24 bringing the total deal to 3 yr and $32 mill. The CBT hit would be (32/3) $10.6 per yr for ’22-’23 plus any incentive earned for a particular season. If the options are declined Paxton can either a)decline his $4 mill option for ’23 and walk away or (b) accept the 4 mill option for ’23. CBT wise that would be (a) $6 mill for ’22 or (b) $10 mill for ’22-’23 or $5 mill per.
Sox can also choose only 1 option year for ’23 making it a 2 yr ‘$19 mill deal but they forfeit the second year if they do not choose it concurrently. It’s similar to Brittons deal, also by Boras.
Dotty – Therein lies the rub, how many starts will we get out of Paxton to be able to gauge whether the option should be picked up? If he’s not totally healthy and pitching well by August, I’d stay far away from that 2-year option.
I believe his health in August will be much more important than the number or starts or innings he has been able to pitch in 2022. If he’s not able to take the mound until late July or early August, that wouldn’t concern me so long as he’s fully healthy. If he’s deemed to be fully healthy, I’d take the risk of the 2 year option at such a low price for an established pitcher like Paxton.
I’d like to see a minimum of ten starts with no health concerns before picking up the options on Paxton. Setbacks can occur when a player returns from a serious injury, I just don’t want another Sale situation where they rush into making a costly mistake.
The Red Sox are not the Dodgers, they can’t afford to take big money gambles and eat contracts like the Dodgers can.
I liked the Paxton contract a lot more when he was expected to return in June.
Omg stfu!!!!!
Chris Sale has completely fallen apart. What an awful contract this is turning out to be for Boston. I believe Sale has an opt out after this season but I see no reason for him to exercise it unless he feels guilty about taking a ‘free’ $60M from the Red Sox. He’s one of the few players in the league who might think that way. He’s really frustrated with all of his injuries and really wants to help this team win. At this point, him coming back in late June is no help to this team. They’ll be completely out of the playoff race by then. It might be time to sell the team off and bring up the kids.
Dotty – Way too soon to have a fire sale and give up on the season.
Just curious, why do you think Sale would even consider opting out? You make him out to be some kind of Tim Tebow who doesn’t care about money, but that’s totally false. He likely hid the injury and rushed the contract extension because he knew TJ was in his future. At the time everyone was surprised he didn’t push for more money, well now we know why.
@Fever Pitch – Chris Sale pretty much said this at the start of the season when they found his stress fracture. He said he feels really bad being paid so much for zero contribution to the team. He didn’t say anything about opting out and reducing his salary but Sale is a unique guy. He never blamed anyone but himself with things go wrong for him, which is really refreshing. I am totally guessing here, but I could see Sale giving Boston and extra year for a very low salary to make up for time missed. He could opt out, add an extra year to his remaining deal but only ask for an additional $5M or so, thereby lowering the AAV of his deal. Again, 100% speculative on my end but Sale is one of the few guys in MLB who would do something like this. What should have happened is that the Sox should have added the “John Lackey” clause to his last deal where if he lost a full season due to injury, the Sox could add on 1 additional year for the league minimum. That worked very well for Boston as Lackey came back and pitched extremely well for them.
Dotty – The Lackey Clause is an excellent point you’ve brought up, I agree Dombrowski should have included it.
As for Sale himself, it’s not uncommon for pitchers to take the blame for their poor performance. But even if he wanted to give the Red Sox something close to a “freebie”, his agent and more importantly the players union would never allow it.
Just wondering, if Sale does return to the team by mid-June will he feel bad if he can’t pitch in the two remaining series up in Toronto? How about if the Sox manage to play the Jays in the postseason?
Dotty shut your pie hole
U clueless idiot
Muted. You sound a bit psychotic.
Move Whitlock back to the pen. Put houck back on the starting five. The Sox would probably have 3-5 more wins if Whitlock was the closer. If you wanna try Whitlock as a starter next year go for it
I agree, Dirtylandry. While starters are generally viewed as being more important than bullpen arms, that is not the case with this Red Sox team. All things considered, the Sox starting pitching (prior to Whitlock joining them) has been pretty darn good. Once they turn the game over to the bullpen, things have fallen apart quickly. Whitlock was so valuable out of the bullpen. He could pitch 2-3 times per week. Sometimes they’d use him for 2+ innings and other times they’d use him to close games. He was very successful in both roles and there is no one else left to do this now that he is in the starting rotation. His performance out of the bullpen reminded me a lot of Andrew Miller back in the day. Guys like that are so valuable to the team. They really need him back in that role as they could have won and additional 4-5 games this year already had he stayed in the bullpen.
Boston SPs have good numbers because they (wisely) don’t let them face the lineup a third time through (let’s see what happens when Whitlock starts pitching into the 6th inning). The talent just isn’t there. However, if you’re going with the Rays strategy of pu-pu-platter starting pitchers as essentially glorified openers, you have to have capable bullpen arms to back them up, and they just don’t, which leads to their 10-17 record.
andrew – Say what?
Eovaldi has faced hitters a third time in all six of his starts.
Wacha has faced hitters a third time in his last three starts.
Even Pivetta has faced hitters a third time in three of his five starts.
The reason Whitlock hasn’t is because he’s still getting stretched out from his reliever role.
And the reason Hill has done it only twice is because he’s 42.
I hate saying it because Whitlock has looked good as a starter but putting him back in the pen is probably best for the team. The bullpen looks completely lost without him and they need some kind of stabilizing force down there.
Cora needs to shake up the lineup too as the current one isn’t working. Maybe put Hernandez back at leadoff and see if he gets going or put Verdugo there like in 2020. Verdugo hit .304 as a leadoff hitter in ’20 and this team is in dire need of a spark
Unless your name is Max Scherzer or Gerrit Cole (so far), teams just shouldnt sign SP’s to more than a 4 year deal. That’ll never be the high watermark again, but still. Just too much risk involved in deals longer than that.
What did Bloom expect when he signs a bunch of IL pitchers, a sudden turn around to anything they haven’t done in at least 2 years?
Somewhere Ben Simmons is reading this Chris Sale article and chuckling.
Seriously, I sure hope Chris makes it back. His frail build may have finally caught up with him.
RIP this season as we blew another save and are down to the White Sox yet again.
We still have a chance but I have little faith right now. No bullpen at all.
The Sox actually have a pretty good bullpen IMHO but they are utilizing them as starters instead due to lack of good starters.
8 blown saves in 27 games wow. I don’t know what is more shocking that they have blown 8 saves or that with the way the offense is hitting that they have had 8 save opportunities to blow.
5 for 13 in saves and all 5 are by 5 different pitchers. There is no confidence in the backend of this bullpen. Bloom signed Carlos Martinez today and that could be an improvement over the current group
The starting pitching has kept the team in most of the games, tonight Pivetta was brilliant and BTW faced hitters for a third time.
The problem is not just the relievers themselves, it’s how the bullpen is being handled. Robles hasn’t been good since 2019 and yet Cora keeps putting him in high leverage situations. None of the relievers know what their role is, that makes their job more difficult.
My biggest concern is Barnes, he basically totally lost it immediately after signing that big extension. Something is going on with him.
And BTW not fair to put all the blame on the bullpen when Story made yet another critical error that cost the team a run. Combined with his putrid performance at the plate, I agree with Joe that right now he looks like a total bust.
FPG – Exactly right. Fire the manager. He’s an imbecile!! Owners while you have the pink slips out fire Bloom too. Let a new, experienced GM come in and assess the talent and sign/extend the players that should stay in Boston. Then, have a garage sale of all the crap minor league players Bloom brought in. Yes, basically I’m saying press reset. Fix the damage Bloom has done and turn Cora back into a bench coach who speaks two languages because he’s not qualified to be a manager.
KD – Let’s not forget when he got the job he had a grand total of just one year of experience, as a bench coach with the Astros. He hadn’t managed or coached anywhere else in the majors or minors, just the PR Winter League for two years.
I don’t think his failures are a result of just his lack of knowledge, I think it’s also because of his arrogance. He suffers from “I’m Smarter Than Everyone Else Syndrome”. He loves making lots of pitching changes, and making decisions that are contrary to the norm. Like DH’ing Shaw instead of Xander, or playing Arroyo at SS instead of Story.
Make no mistake, if Alex Cora were managing a mid-market or small-market team he would last about as long as Jimy Williams and Grady Little did.
I was criticized last year for suggesting that Sale knew he was cooked when he signed that “team friendly” contract. If he was confident in his health, Sale would have tested free agency and looked for a record deal. Now the Red Sox have the privilege of paying big money to be his personal doctors
Ronk325 – Too bad your story doesn’t work. The timeline is off. Sale was on a huge team friendly deal when he came to Boston. In March 2019 he signed his new deal prior to Cora changing his delivery in May of 2019 and causing the TJ surgery.
Everything you said is based on wrong information. He wasn’t injured when he signed. The signing was partial payback for playing so far under his value from 2017 to 2019. His AAV will end up at $23MM during his time in Boston. That’s low for a guy with his talent prior to Cora screwing him over.
Honestly, I think Sale would have played for less if he had a “no listen to Cora” clause in his contract. Unfortunately, Sale is a good soldier and obeyed and paid the price along with all of Red Sox Nation. Firing both Cora and Bloom is the only logical thing to do at this point. I bet Sale bounces back if they fire Cora. In 9 years with Farrell and Robin Ventura in Chicago he never had problems like he’s had in Boston. Same can be said for Price. It’s not an issue with signing these big name pitchers it’s all about keeping the KNOW NOTHING manager from directing their activities.
Sale’s performance in Boston is totally on Cora. Sale got hurt doing as the coach told him to do like he’s supposed to.
I know a good way to throw away 10 mil. Lets sign a 33 year old with a long history of injury issues thatll be a great idea ,…hey look at me my name is chaim bloom I have no idea what im doing ahhhhh Im going mental ahhhhhj im mental
I actually think the Sox are in a pretty good position, and I’m not some kind of hometown honk/homer.
They’ve already got a top 10 farm system. The current team is terrible, and circling the drain. They’ll soon trade Eovaldi/Bogaerts/Martinez/Kike/Vazquez.
By the end of the season they’ll likely have a top 5 system, a very high draft pick/pool, and gobs of money to spend in the offseason, with very few guaranteed dollars on the books. They will spend up to $230.
They want to be the Dodgers. This is how you do it.
Paxton… more soundness issues…that’s hard to believe…LMFAO
Bloom is not going anywhere. Building the team value is top priority. Second is establishing a pipeline of interchanging parts that can make the trek between Worcester and the hub. Third is putting a winning product on the field. Cost control is the owner’s mantra. Get used to it Sox fans. John Henry is getting along in years. He’s already broken the curse. These moves will make the club much more attractive to a potential buyer in the future. Business…… and nothing more. When he cashes out, the profit will be amazing.
Bobby – Are you familiar with the phrase oxymoron? I’m thinking you might consider that to be a not to bright guy on oxy but it’s not. Team value comes from winning. Winning comes from talent. Talent comes from spending money.
Everything you said is contradictory! The best way to raise the intrinsic value of the organization is to do what DD did. Spend big to win big to create post season revenues that far exceed the extra costs to win the season and present the organization as the premiere organization based on results, most rings in this century. Right now he has a team in chaos so the value is plummeting compared to where it would have been with DD.
We all hope Henry sells soon but each year Bloom is here the sales price goes down due to a lack of success..
It’s time to clean house.
Front office & ownership specifically.
In case you are interested. The team was 6-5 at one point this season.
They are now 10-19 so 4-14 since that very average start of 6-5.
Extrapolating the record to 162 games puts us in a great position in the 2023 draft!!
56 – 106 might just beat Baltimore but Detroit and Cincinnati still look like the front runners for the first pick in the draft!!!
Hey, but we have JBJ for $1MM more than when we cut him!!!
And we gave Renfroe a new home where he can hit even more home runs at half of JBJ cost!!
Bloom is a genius or is that genie’s ass? He needs to go today to get things fixed by 2023.
In regards to Chris Sale. The White Sox knew he was going to break down. His mechanics are described as “violent” and create huge stress on his small frame. He’s a great pitcher not doubt, but I’m afraid the end is near