Red Sox: Chris Sale Done For The Year, Avoids Tommy John Surgery
By TC Zencka
Red Sox ace Chris Sale visited with Dr. James Andrews, and though he’ll miss the rest of the season, the news is he’ll avoid TJ surgery… At least for now.
It looks like Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale will avoid the worst: No Tommy John surgery.
But also no more baseball. Sale’s season is likely done after undergoing a platelet-rich plasma treatment, per a team update. Boston is shutting him down from baseball activities until his next evaluation – at minimum six weeks from now – putting Sale on the bubble to return in time for the playoffs.
Of course, the Red Sox don’t have to worry about that. Sale can take his sweet time getting back into game shape because the Red Sox are in danger of playing their parade season to the same tune as the 2013 Champion Red Sox – and missing the playoffs.
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In the National League, 67-59 would put Boston in a statistical dead heat with the Cubs for the second Wild Card spot. In the American League, however, the BoSox sit 6 games out of playoff position and 16 behind the Yankees in the AL East. A playoff birth isn’t impossible – but Red Sox fans should feel free to make plans for October.
If Chris Sale and the Red Sox were married, Sale might half-heartedly offer to come back for the end of September, to which the Red Sox could just roll their eyes and leave the room. Take the space.
Being an East Coast gal, however, the Red Sox might instead point out that Sale has contributed more than enough for the Red Sox this season. This would be a dig. Sale would recognize it was a dig. The evening would devolve from there.
Fact is, by the end of April, the Red Sox were already 7 games out of playoff position, in no small part due to losing each of Sale’s first 6 starts. On May 1, he was 0-5 with a 6.30 ERA while averaging just 5 innings per start. That’s bad production from your fifth starter. From your ace, it’s damn near sabotage.
On the whole, 2019 was simply the worst of Sale’s career by far. He’s bounced back (3.91 ERA since May 1), but the team has gone just 10-9 on Sale start days. Three months later of decent Sale, and the Red Sox have picked up 1 game in the Wild Card race while falling completely out of the divisional race. And people think games in April don’t matter…
It’s not all bad. Chris Sale leads the league with 13.3 K/9, and while his 4.40 ERA makes me feel like I gained 20 pounds and just saw a picture of myself, fielding independent metrics imply his ERA is simply bloated. 3.40 FIP/2.94 xFIP looks pretty good no matter what pants I’m wearing.
Similarly, his 2.3 rWAR won’t know your socks off, especially for an ace with a ring on his finger, but 3.6 fWAR with six weeks to go indicate a guy still capable of fronting a World Series rotation.
Sale closing out the World Series was one of the indelible images from the 2018 season; So too will Sale’s baffling incompetence over the first 6 weeks of 2019 go down as one of the defining events of this season. Regardless, if Sale is healthy and ready to rock by Opening Day 2020, the Red Sox will count this as a win.
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If this prognosis doesn’t hold and Sale ends up visiting Dr. James Andrews again, then we’ll likely have the first defining moment of the 2020 season.