Projecting Red Sox Rotation After Latest Chris Sale Injury

The Boston Red Sox sent Chris Sale for an MRI on Tuesday after the left-hander was said to be dealing with elbow soreness. The staff ace already wasn't on track this spring after he got delayed with the flu and pneumonia, but now a much more grave situation has presented itself.

While manager Ron Roenicke is concerned, he has no knowledge of the severity of the injury, but he'll have to plan around this with Sale's 2020 debut likely being even more delayed.

Came up sore the day after throwing. Roenicke said he’s concerned but doesn’t have more information right now.
— Jason Mastrodonato (@JMastrodonato) March 3, 2020

The top three rotation spots are virtually a lock. Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Eovaldi, and Martin Perez should make up the majority of the staff once Opening Day hits.

The final two spots are where there are big issues. If Sale is out for an extended period of time, a trade is almost necessary. This team is already limping into the regular season after trading away Mookie Betts and David Price, so going in with the three aforementioned players as your top pitchers is an embarrassment. This is Boston, not Seattle.

If you’re the Red Sox, you HAVE to go and get another starting pitcher now. An elbow MRI during Spring Training is just... bad.

The rotation can’t be ERod, a hopefully healthy Eovaldi, Perez, and....... Triple-A arms.

Or it can be, and the Sox are lucky if they win 60 games.
— Gabrielle (@gfstarr1) March 3, 2020

Some pitchers left on the free agent market include Jason Vargas, Clay Buchholz, Collin McHugh, Clayton Richard, Andrew Cashner and Marco Estrada. While they aren't exactly sexy options, the Sox will need to get their hands on a reliable veteran to eat innings against competitive teams in the meantime.

Internal options remain, though. Multiple guys in the organization could be given a shot such as Kyle Hart, Chris Mazza, Ryan Weber and Mike Shawaryn. They're all currently on the 40-man roster and are getting innings in Spring Training. Hart pitched two hitless innings against the Minnesota Twins on Feb. 28, and Mazza pitched in a simulated game against the Red Sox on Tuesday which saw him strikeout JD Martinez.

Red Sox are playing a simulated game at JetBlue Park. Here’s rotation candidate Chris Mazza striking out J.D. Martinez in his first of 3 innings of work. pic.twitter.com/eQxJM8GlEb
— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) March 3, 2020

At this point, assuming the Sox go with in-house options, we can expect to see Rodriguez, Eovaldi, Perez, Weber and Brian Johnson, who will likely act as an opener or spot starter until the team feels comfortable slotting another young arm in there. Tossing a prospect/inexperienced player in this mess will likely only hinder their development, so the Sox need to be careful here.