The Red Sox announced a series of roster moves today, some of which were previously reported, though some were new developments. Outfielder Adam Duvall has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list while left-hander Joe Jacques has had his contract selected. To open two active roster spots, lefty Matt Dermody has been designated for assignment while infielder Enmanuel Valdéz was optioned to Triple-A. To open one more 40-man roster spot, lefty Chris Sale has been transferred to the 60-day injured list. The Sox informed reporters, including Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe, that Sale has a stress reaction in his shoulder blade. He won’t require surgery but he will be shut down for three to four weeks before being reevaluated.
Sale, 34, was once one of the most dominant pitchers in the league but he has been severely held back by injuries in recent years. He averaged over 200 innings per season from 2012 to 2017 but was held to roughly 150 per year in the two following seasons. He made trips to the injured list in 2018 due to shoulder inflammation then dealt with elbow inflammation the following year. He ultimately required Tommy John surgery in March of 2020, causing him to miss that entire season.
He returned late in 2021 and was able to make nine starts that year. It was hoped he would be set for a return to full-time work in 2022 but he dealt with a stress reaction in his ribs that kept him out until July. He was hit by a comebacker in his second start, fracturing a finger. While on the injured list again, he broke his wrist in a bicycle accident that ended his season.
Here in 2023, it was again hoped that he could perhaps return to a regular starting role. That was the case for a while, as he made 11 starts with a 4.58 ERA, but he landed on the injured list again on June 2 due to shoulder inflammation. He’ll now be ineligible to return until August, though even that seems contingent on a bit of luck in the health department. The aforementioned shutdown period will keep him out of action for most of the rest of June. Even if he’s healthy after that, he’ll need most of July to build back up and go on a rehab assignment.
In the short term, the Red Sox will be figuring out how to proceed without Sale. They have recently been running out a group with veteran James Paxton alongside younger pitchers like Brayan Bello, Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford, while struggles from Corey Kluber and Nick Pivetta got both of those guys pushed into the bullpen.
In the long-term, the Sox will have to wonder what they can expect from Sale going forward. He is playing this year on a salary of $27.5MM and will make that same figure next year as part of the extension he and the club signed going into 2019. There’s also a $20MM club option for 2025 with no buyout. Due to his carousel of injuries, he’s pitched just over 100 innings since the end of the 2019 campaign.
Sale will be back to put us over the hump in September.
Money well spent.
What a damn shame he was on the hall of fame trajectory at one point.
After his horrendous start, he was looking like the usual May Sales. I was hoping given his later start, he’d have momentum in September when historically he loses steam. Anyone remember 86 when the team’s best starter in the playoffs was Bruce Hurst? He also succumbed to the long season but that year he was injured until June or July.
Same with deGrom.
I loved his burning of the gawd awful retro uniforms when he was with the White Sox. I remember those and even have some baseball cards with them wearing them. Just the worst ‘big league’ unis of all time. He was cool with me after that. The Sox management, not so much.
He didn’t burn them but cut them to shreds with a razor knife.
And it wasn’t cool. It was juvenile and arrogant to assume his opinion should be the only one that mattered, and he then made a unilateral decision that affected all of his teammates.
I’ve seen several other alternate jerseys that should be burned or cut up and never worn again.
sophie – Obviously you have never pitched. This wasn’t the first time he wore the uniforms he cut up. They were incredibly uncomfortable and the media person who came up with the idea thought they were great and didn’t care that the team couldn’t get comfortable in them.
It’s not a theatrical production, they are on the field to play baseball. Should the BOZO media person heed the feedback from the star pitcher and his teammates who were having significant issues trying to play in the uniforms? My opinion is YES. I had to play in a throwback 100% wool jersey that didn’t fit right, didn’t breathe on a hot humid day in Chicago. It impacted the performance of the team more and more as the game wore on.
I loved what Sale did and what seems to be missed when people say disparaging things about the incident was that Sale didn’t act on his own opinion ONLY. As a leader in the clubhouse, he did what the team wanted and took the heat for it. That’s what being a clubhouse leader is all about.
It WAS NOT his opinion only. Read the details given by unbiased reporters!! The clubhouse consensus was that the uniforms were incredibly uncomfortable. When you have to play in that many different jerseys during a season can you imagine how incredibly uncomfortable that particular jersey must have been for Sale to do what he did for the team?
Your Primadona BS is that of an uninformed fan. I lived in Chicago, and you are misrepresenting what happened like many reporters did because they disliked Sale. His team supported what he did and thanked him.
And just as a side note, those uniforms are ugly as hell and should never be worn again.
This means Sale best case is back in August!! WOW!! OUCH!!
Let’s hope he comes back strong to finish the season so there is optimism for 2024.
I wonder if Bloom will give away damaged goods to somebody and do a buy down. Bloom is so stupid he might think reducing future payroll would be a smart move like he did with Price. It would be one more burden left by Bloom when he gets fired if he eats ANY part of Sale’s salary so he can say he dumped the ENTIRE 2018 champ roster except Devers.
Very unlikely. Timeline is such that Sale wouldn’t have time to show he was capable of performing, and, indeed not establishing what the resolution to this particular injury is or if something bigger requiring surgery becomes necessary, before the trade deadline.
No team will trade for Sale with his last few years of injuries, even with cash attached, if he isn’t back on the mound. Well, unless bloom pays 90% of salary and take back a single lottery ticket flier in exchange, which, even Bloom wouldn’t ever do.
Even if another team was interested they would have to get Sale’s consent. He has no reason to agree without getting something out of it like having his option year guaranteed.
mullig2 – I think you underestimate the toxic environment in Boston. I think he would go to KC, PIT you name it to get away from Cora.
if anything sale would be contributing to the toxic environment
I feel so bad for him.. Went from one of the most durable starters to rarely pitching. After all his mental struggles he talked about coming back from Tommy John….
Chris Sale’s moment of greatness has sailed away
Look out WooSox
A $145M lottery ticket in the form of a 5 year annuity, instead of a reasonable salary.
Boston has to hope that Paxton continues to pitch well enough to fetch them a top 100ish prospect at the trade deadline. I could see them flipping Kiké back to the Dodgers as well. With Sale down for 60+ days, any hopes of Boston getting a wild card spot in the playoffs is now dashed. This is definitely the end of the line for Bloom; he has done nothing to improve this team other than make a couple of decent 1st round draft picks who might pan out. It’s shameful that they couldn’t sign Jud Fabian (2nd round pick); yet another Bloom move that will come back to haunt this team. They have no young pitching in the minors except for Mata who is now hurt and getting older by the day. There’s only so much Mayer, Rafael and maybe Yorke can do to improve this team. They need good young pitching and their system is devoid of it….shameful, or shall I say Chaimful.
Dorothy- they have some promising arms in AA in grant gambrell, CJ liu, Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, issac Coffey in A, as well as drohan in AAA
Louis Perales in A ball is possibly their best pitching prospect.
The Red Sox currently stand at 31-32, and would need about a 63-36 record over their remaining games to make the playoffs. I do not see the Red Sox making the wild even with Duval and Story returning. When they were 21-14, it looked good. After the recent 10-18 stretch, IMO, they should be sellers: Paxton, Martin, Hansen, Turner, and Hernandez should all go.
The 2020 Red Sox last place finish was on Dave Dombrowski and the Front Office who signed off on some bad contract extensions. 2021 the Red Sox had Bloom’s stamp of changes and made it to within two games of the World Series. In 2022 Bloom signed a lot of potentially injury risk players, who guess what, ended up injured and the team under performed. After a 2023 failure, IMO Bloom will be toast…..
In all fairness to Bloom, DD left the payroll high, the farm bare, and a front office which was tired of paying the luxury taxes (and draft penalties). Bloom has some good trade and some bad (JBJ Rreturn), but I wonder how much more patience the ownership will have?
The Red Sox aren’t making the playoffs, but you suggesting they need to win 97 games to do so is definitely off.
I agree they need to dump who they Duvall, Kike and Paxton for certain as they are on one year deals, Turner and Jansen also make sense even though they’re coming back. I;d keep Martin though.
SJ: I agree 97 is too high, but it looks like JC is saying 94 wins are needed (31 + 63). That is probably a good worst case estimate in my opinion.
Thanks Allin. I think 94 is the number as the ALE only plays 13 games against each other instead of 19. They will not be beating each upas much as the previous years wild card races. It will take a higher win total.
The JBJ trade was horrendous even at the time. No reason to do that, but still David Hamilton might be something. I’d like to see him up soon as that speed plays if he get on base enough to utilize it.
JC: I agree with your post except, if John Henry wants to switch to a Rays style of organization (with a larger budget), I think he needs to allow more than 4 years to get things switched over.
Allin – I agree. With Marcelo Mayer, Miguel Blies, Ceddanne Rafeala, and Nick Yorke arriving in 2024 and 2025, I think Bloom should stay and finish the process. I think Whitlock, Bello, Crawford as starters and Houck, Winckowski, Schreiber, Murphy, and others, the piece will come together.
When Bloom arrived the payroll was bloated, and the farm system was nearly devoid of future MLB talent. You are correct that it takes time to build, but the trades have helped refill the system. To supplement the farm, most of the contracts signed this year were one year or one year with an option, which are perfect for flipping at the deadline!!
Hopefully ownership will not give into fan pressure to fire Bloom. He is building a system with young controllable players which was the majority of the 2018 team. DD supplemented with a very good trade for Chris Sale, but Kimbrel and Thornburg cost 8 prospects and drained the system IMO unnecessarily. Then the re-signed of an already injured Sale cost DD his job (which I totally agree with. He was not the GM to rebuild the system.)
Wow JC Wow . So letting Bogey, Nate , JD , and Wacha walk with nothing in return is a good rebuild method . Retool with guys like kluber , JT 38 years old, Jansen another old man. That’s a rebuild project?? No one DD got rid of amounted much. I am curious how long do you think it will take Bloom to make this a championship contender? I don’t see it happening with him .
Dorothy: Jud Fabian is striking out almost 30% of the time at A+ ball. Let’s see what he does at AA. Strikeouts was always his problem.
But he is also walking about 20% of the time and is one of the O’s minor league leaders in SB and RBIs.
Dont sleep on miguel bleis he will be better than mayer etc…kid is gonna be a star
Don’t be down on Chris. He gave the Sox 59 solid innings this year compared to 5.2 last year.
Damn, it really looked like he was back for a little while there, but I guess not. He’s basically like a left-handed deGrom at this point.
More like a left-handed Strausberg (sp?).
C Yards – More like deGrom. Strassburg has never been at Sale and deGrom’s level.
Say what you will about Brais ( after 18 nothing good) but he was durable until nearly being decapitated… and still pitched more than Sale… abide…awfully …. But he answered the bell… two days later…nothing could rally the Redsox more than trading back for Brais… . Signing Ohtahni next year close 2 nd
With some health he was going to be a Hall Of Famer.
This disastrous team is all on Bloom. There is no continuity to this team. Players are out of position, errors are being made like crazy. How did you really expect Sale to be the same guy who has thrown less than 50 innings in two years. Players in free agency don’t want to come here because they see how the Red Sox screw over their own players. They will take less money not to come to Boston. The Red Sox traded Betts, screwed over Bogaerts in negotiations who wanted to stay, traded Christian Vazquez to a team we were playing that night, traded for Hosmer then traded him at the end of the year. We re we buyers or sellers at the trade deadline? I still don’t know. They let Wacha and Eovaldi go to sign Cory Kluber who cannot get people out with his velocity. They pick up throwaways and guys on dumpster contracts. The team is 14 games out of first place in the division and in last place. This was the worst scenario for Bloom. Bloom put this team together and deserves all the blame. This team is going to finish in last place. The brains of the Rays success over the years was on Andrew Friedman not Bloom who looks like he rode Friedman’s shirttails. I think this is the end of Bloom.
Bloom has turned the Sox into an embarrassment. No middle infield, absolutely no power, the pitching is garbage. It isn’t like he had a legacy of championships with Tampa. He needs to go, as well as Cora. Some Sox fans still grumble about Dombrowski, but he got them a championship. As did Theo and Cherington. Bloom has destroyed the team to where it will be at least 2026 before they’re legit.
I agree Dave Dombroski got them the World Series in 2018. Name one player he traded from the minor leagues who is doing anything earth shattering in the major leagues? I cannot think of anyone. Give me Dave Dombroski anytime over Bloom. This team is less than 5 years removed from a World Series and what is one player left from that team?
Dombrowski traded the value from the farm system to help build the World Series champion. Bloom is trying to build that value back again as he is not trading from the farm system so far. The prospects Dombrowski traded had value regardless of what they turned into.
Name one player he traded from the minor leagues who is doing anything earth shattering in the major leagues?
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Just as important, name the players that are currently helping us win.
I like Bello, and hopefully Casas, but this team lacks many good young players.
AITSTYW – BULL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have to be one of the most misguided people on this site..
DD traded overrated players and got value. IF the players are overrated then he DID NOT destroy the farm system he used it in the PROPER WAY to be successful.
You have no idea about farm systems. It’s not improved since Bloom came. It’s worse because his only significant adds have been from abject failure!!! That’s not a guy building a farm system that’s a guy marketing that he’s doing something that he’s not. If he was selling stocks the SEC would put him in jail for misrepresenting the truth about the stocks. In baseball, nobody cares that Bloom lies constantly about improving the farm system.
The traded prospects by DD may have had value but that doesn’t suggest it was a positive value!!! Do you really not get how this all works? Take notes junior.
The FARM SYSTEM is a defined set of roster positions. The rosters are locked in size so when you add someone you must remove someone. If you trade away an over-rated player and replace them with a greater talent you improve the farm system as DD did.
Bloom has been importing bad minor league players and then releasing them. The number of players in the farm system are the same but the quality of the players have fallen due to Bloom. The only true additions from Bloom are draft picks.
The problem with giving him credit for those picks is twofold:
1 – ANY GM would have taken Mayer so that isn’t a brilliant Bloom decision, Two very bad GMs picking before him didn’t take the best available player so he fell to Bloom or any person that was the GM of Boston..
2 – NOBODY Bloom drafted has favorably impacted the MLB team so they are all potential value that has not yet been realized and may never be realized.
Bloom has yet to add value to the MLB team, he’s only removed it and replaced it with lesser valued players and the same can be said for the farm system with the exception of a few draft picks who have yet to prove they are as good as their suggested potential AND there is no way to prove that Boston would NOT have taken the same picks with a different GM except for the fact that Bloom tanked the team to get the picks. A good GM wouldn’t do that.
So stop fabricating farm system BS. It’s not better now it’s been downgraded by trades Bloom has made and it has been upgraded by Bloom’s tanking at the MLB level That’s not anything anyone should be proud of yet you boast as if he’s done something right rather than the factual case that he’s DONE NOTHING RIGHT and has DESTROYED the ROSTER and downgraded the farm system other than his draft picks for tanking.
KD: I’ll go with the Red Sox evaluation of the prospects Dombrowski traded and the acquiring teams evaluation of them over yours. The prospects had value and they were traded for value.
AITSTYW – What a ridiculous comment!! hahaha
Dude. It’s after the fact and they did suck. This is a hindsight situation.
Espinosa never did anything and Pomerantz helped win a ring.
Moncada and Kopech six years later aren’t all-stars and Kiopech has barely contributed during the six years since the deal. Sale started back to back all star games.
The statement that the players were over-rated is an after the fact with 20/20 hindsight observation not my opinion. The data shows they were over-rated when they were dealt which makes DD a genius for maximizing their value through trade.
Sorry but you really don’t have any clue of what you are talking about.
Let me make this simple DD=GOOD BLOOM=TERRIBLE.
Those are career evaluations that are not likely to change before DD goes into the HOF and Bloom gets a job writing books for minor league farm systems!! See that’s his only REAL accomplishment. His staff found all the great players in TB and he has yet to find any in Boston because he left all the bright ones in TB which is why they lead the division and we are in last!!! The owners of the Red Sox got duped!!! Bloom is a pretender who TALKS a big game but can’t deliver.
Fans seem to only talk about DD tearing down farm systems., which he does… often.
But he also restocks them after getting a ring. Henry fired DD after winning a world series before DD could restock. That is o. Henry, not DD.
Bloom isn’t the guy I thought he was. I was happy to see Bllom signed. But the dude is terrible. Just terrible.
That is on Henry, too.
I think the Sale and Eovaldi contracts after 2018 got Dombrowski fired. They both got big contracts and promptly got hurt.
I think the long-term plan is to build a contender from the farm system like the Rays. Then, unlike the Rays, the Red Sox can afford to retain their good players. It takes time to build a good farm system. If the Red Sox went out and signed a bunch of older free agents, they might end up like the Yankees with a $290M player payroll and starting Jake Bauers, Billy McKinley, Willie Calhoun, Greg Allen, etc. because the old expensive free agents are hurt. I prefer building from the farm system even though it takes time.
*McKinney
Dombrowski got fired because of the sign stealing fiasco. He was part of the scape goat committee.
I doubt it. MLB’s report on the 2018 Red Sox exonerated Dombrowski. In fact, MLB failed to document a single instance of cheating.
Henry fired DD after winning a world series before DD could restock.
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DD left the RS and Tigers with very little in the farm.
AITSTYW – Ridiculous and uninformed opinion.
FYI It was 2019. Try for once, to say something accurate!!
More gibberish.
AK sox fan – Cora has a direct relationship with ownership and by passed DD with his second scheme to cheat.
DD got fired for wanting to retain Mookie and ownership wanted no part in keeping a player who called them racist. Something had to change to remove Mookie so DD was fired.
Aitstyw – Wrong again. There was plenty of documentation that was ignored by the commissioner because he couldn’t get people to go on RECORD that it happened thanks to the Houston repercussions to those who talked.
There was a ton of evidence but none was ON THE RECORD thanks to the Players Union and the Commissioner’s mishandling of the situation. Cora should have been banned for life doing it twice.
KD: If there was no evidence on the record, how could you know there was evidence?
KD: I said the Eovaldi and Sale contracts were given out after 2018 meaning after the 2018 season. 2019 is after 2018.
DBH – DD traded over valued pieces to other teams for under-valued pieces and won a ring.
Think about restocking a farm system. There is a huge misconception of how things work!!
The farm system is comprised of players who were drafted and players that were acquired. The restocking as you called it, can happen by either means but it’s not really restocking when most of the additional players come from the draft and the draft isn’t a restocking as much as it’s an influx of new talent. The goal isn’t to replace the players no longer in the minors it’s to select the best possible players to help the franchise in the future.
At the end of each season, the team has the same number of employees in the farm system unless they add a new affiliate or lose an old one!
Players quit. Players retire and players are traded away or DFA’d which reduces the total players in the farm system. Players are drafted, acquired or traded for to replenish those that have left.
Managing a farm system is like stocking inventory. You try to make available to the MLB club all the types of players they will need. The fact that there was a run on a specific type player this year doesn’t suggest that you need to stock more of them the next year. Each year should have it’s own plan. The GM and his team select players in a draft to fill holes or because they are the best available player at that point in the draft. When they complete the draft they should balance their inventory and match it to their pre-draft plan.
Now here is the part most people don’t comprehend. The GM can impact the future by selecting players that provide greater value than other players drafted at the same approximate time in the draft but the draft for the most part is out of their control. They sometimes have luck like Bloom did when Mayer got passed over by two idiot GMs and at other times the guy you want gets picked right before your pick and it turns out your evaluation of him was correct (after the fact obviously).
So to evaluate ANY GM and their contribution to the farm system NEVER read a FARM SYSTEM ranking because they are meaningless. They are political rankings by most services and are constructed from the recommendations of each ball club. Thus, Swihart a favorite son of one of the powerful people in the organization was ranked a lot higher than Mookie Betts until Mookie proved ownership was wrong about him and that he was their franchise player.
Bloom’s revolving door of farm system players still comes back to one thing!!
There are only so many slots in the farm system!!
Did the new players provide more benefit to the MLB club than the old players would have? Since NOBODY has provided value that Bloom has picked up and since we can only observe those let go and whether they proved Bloom wrong. There is no way to say Bloom HELPED the farm system. It’s far more likely he hurt it.
WHY? Because the trading and free agency of farm players are the only added value Bloom could have provided since none of the draft picks have proven to be exceptional based on where they were selected!
Houck and Casas are currently proving to be smart choices for DD but Bloom hasn’t had that happen with any of his picks to date..
The draft is a way a GM can impact his ball club if he selects well. Taking Mookie, Bogey, Devers and Benny were outstanding choices. Taking Casas and Houck by DD were outstanding choices.
Mayer fell to Bloom based of exceptional luck, so he gets no credit for taking an obvious pick. Yorke, however, was his choice so we need to look at others that went after Yorke and whether they are outperforming Yorke and would have added greater value to the Red Sox. That’s a huge task if you want to review all of Bloom’s picks. I’m not willing to undertake that effort but since nobody in 3 years (HS or COLLEGE guys) have made an impact on the MLB club, it’s safe to say he’s not doing a great job with the drafts.
DBH – I know you hate the job Bloom has done but you need to review what DD did. Tearing down never happened in Boston or anywhere else. He uses expendable minor league talent to get necessary talent to compete for a ring. That’s exactly what all GMs should do but some prefer to play the futures game and miss out on the now game when it comes to winning rings.
Last point. DD wasn’t going to specifically replace Moncada, Kopech or Espinosa. He was simply going to draft the next year and add as much value as possible, and he backfilled the traded players with others less highly ranked but with more talent players. Those players then go on to be the next group of farm players that will either graduate to the MLB club or be traded for a missing part for the MLB club. It’s the circle of farm system life!!
Due to the current status of the team do you think they will resort to a fire “Sale” lol
I feel like I’ve read this Sale headline before…many times.
Back in time for a showcase before the trade deadline. A nice addition as a fourth starter or coming out of the pen for the Dodgers.
Back just in time for an showcase before the trade deadline. He’ll be a nice fourth starter or coming out of the pen in the playoffs. I could see the Dodgers cashing in a prospect to have him for the playoffs plus use him as an insurance policy in the event they don’t land Ohtani in the off-season.
bosso = He’ll start because he’s a starter. Cora may do something as dumb as you suggested but if he does it could create issues once again for Sale.
He was dominant for a month because he’s loaded with talent. Cora changed his mechanics and NOTHING has gone well for Sale since then. I don’t expect that to change until Sale is no longer playing for Cora.
Is it he gets paid $27M Or he’s spent 27M days on the DL ????????
I need a answer.
I also have a fever,And the only prescription is more Cow Bell.
Jacob deGrom was the pitcher most recently diagnosed with this rare injury, reported back on April 1st, 2022. He didn’t make his first start of the season until August 2nd. The only other players who have been diagnosed with the injury are:
Michael Wacha
Kurt Ainsworth
Brandon McCarthy
Edwin Correa
As deGrom was recovering, he had a setback in mid-July. It must have been a precautionary thing since he still was able to start on August 2nd, and then finished out the season without missing another start.
Michael Wacha was diagnosed with the same injury after his start on June 17th, 2014. He returned on Sept 4th (about 10 weeks) later.
I wonder how many pitchers went on the DL back in the 1960’s. I guess back then pitchers pitched with pain.
Eznod- The 1984 Red Sox threw 38 complete games (near a quarter of the games played the entire season).
Boyd – 10 CG – 197.2 Innings
Hurst – 9 – 218
Ojeda – 8 – 216.2
Nipper – 6 – 182.2
Clemens – 5 – 133.1 (his rookie year)
With scouts and front offices demanding higher velocity from pitchers, the result is way, way more injuries and way fewer innings. I can remember one year Bob Stanley threw 162 innings as a reliever.
With scouts and front offices demanding higher velocity from pitchers,
======================
It could also be the recognition that pitchers decline throughout the game. Even in 1984, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd time OPS thru the lineup were:
1st .686
2nd.713
3rd .739
The overall RP ERA that year was .692. So you not only get better pitching by pulling your starter, you preserve his arm.
Just when you think that things can not get any worse…
White Sox got the best out of him. Best thing was the trade. He has pitched less and less every year since joining the Red Sox.
Some day, teams will stop giving pitchers huge long-term contracts.
Chris Sale was a dominant pitcher early in his career, however, his dominance would be for the first three to four months of the season and he would start to slow down. Sale’s delivery was violent, especially when he threw that slider. The White Sox wanted Sale to throw less sliders and focus on throwing change ups but he said no. As someone mentioned the White Sox got the best out of Sale and now he became damaged goods as a starting pitcher where his current contract with the Red Sox has been a disaster. Sale could be the most expensive closer!
Bee – That’s horse crap. You have no idea of what you are talking about. Look at his numbers they don’t support what you are saying.
Your 15 minutes of fame on the website was wasted on BS. Sale was fine with Farrell when he arrived. He had an annual issue with dead arm because he pitches as if his hair was on fire. After a short break, the White Sox always got Sale back healthy after the rest and his numbers prove he was elite in Chicago under Ventura and he was elite under Farrell.
Once Cora started impacting his entire game the wheels starting coming off.
Cora, an ignorant bench guy, told Sale to not throw so hard at the start of games. That didn’t work it messed up his normal rhythm. Cora took Sale out of games when he got in trouble like he was a journeyman pitcher not a CY YOUNG candidate. Cora put him on the IL in hopes of resting him to avoid the dead arm and it backfired.
There is nothing wrong with Sale, it’s all on Cora. The wasted money. The lack of games pitched. the ruined career of one of the best pitchers of this generation.
You realize innings are cumulative and age is a huge factor, no?
This is mid 30’s sale after a long career of pitching with his violent unorthodox delivery. Bodies break. Particularly so with stress and age.
Are we to blame Bochy and Buck for Degrom’s inability to stay healthy after previous managers had success?
Or was that one just stress and age related?
The magic number of wins for a playoff spot this year I believe is 90 wins. The team will need to go 57-39 without a bona fide ace. That’s just not happening, Houston and Texas will pull away in the West, Minnesota will win the central, with Tampa, Baltimore, and Toronto repping the AL East. Yup both the Yankees and Red Sox will be competing for the AL East basement this year.