Red Sox Ace Chris Sale Out for Remainder of Season With Elbow Injury
By Michael Luciano
The Boston Red Sox almost had to send their $145 million man under the knife to get the most dreaded surgery in all of baseball. Luckily for Alex Cora and company, Chris Sale appears to be fine, for the most part.
Boston's star lefty visited with Dr. James Andrews, but was only diagnosed with elbow inflammation and will not need Tommy John Surgery.
While he's avoiding the dreaded procedure, Sale likely won't pitch again in 2019. The Red Sox announced he'll be shut down for six weeks, so the earliest he'd be able to return is the last week of the season.
#RedSox Medical Update on Chris Sale: pic.twitter.com/E8pWMw5y8f
— Red Sox (@RedSox) August 19, 2019
Call me crazy, but the Red Sox would be completely foolish to toss him back out there for a meaningless start in late September, especially given they more than likely will not be playing in October.
Sale might still be striking guys out, but his performance this year as compared to 2018 is night and day. His ERA has more than doubled from 2.11 to 4.40, and he has surrendered 24 home runs in 2019 as compared to 11 in 2018 despite pitching 11 fewer innings.
Considering the Red Sox have several superstars up for massive contracts and chose to sign Sale to a huge five-year extension, his disappointing season has been crippling to the team.
The #RedSox owe Chris Sale $145 million. Starting NEXT year.
— Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) August 17, 2019
Imagine Sale's and Nathan Eovaldi's contracts wind up being chief reasons Boston doesn't pay Mookie Betts.
(Dustin Pedroia's contract doesn't help either, but that's another story entirely.)
Sale might not be headed for Tommy John, but he won't be back on a mound this year. He'll have a lot of time to think about what went wrong on the rubber and hope to correct it and bounce back in 2020.