Red Sox Handled Chris Sale All Wrong Whether He Needs Surgery Now or Not

While Spring Training is in full swing, the snow is melting and teams are down in Florida and Arizona to get ready for the upcoming season, Chris Sale is going in for an MRI.

While Sale does not need Tommy John surgery, the Boston Red Sox starter is still going to be on the shelf for a bit due to his elbow injury and pneumonia. It's the last thing Boston needs right now.

This continues a pattern of mismanagement and bad luck between player and team that has been going on since the end of 2018.

Sale was never the picture of health during his days with the White Sox, as he has missed three or more starts in more than half of his seasons as a starter. However, seeing that and watching the tall, skinny pitcher's herky jerky motion didn't put Boston off signing him to a massive contract extension after his first season with the club.

Since then, Sale has had a perpetually sore left elbow that has caused his ERA to double on the back of declining velocity and overall control. They could have had a clean break after he helped them win a championship, but they chose to shackle themselves to Sale's fragile left arm for the foreseeable future.

The extension Sale signed with Boston, which prevented them from forking over big money to the likes of Mookie Betts, is starting to look worse by the day as the injuries mount.