Red Sox have no choice but for Chris Sale to be a ‘huge part’ of 2023
Chris Sale has been on the injured list eight times since the start of the 2018 season. The once sure fire ace of the Red Sox has been a question mark each of the last four seasons.
Sale missed time this past season with a broken rib, an undisclosed illness, a broken pinky and a broken wrist. The veteran lefty is expected to be fully healthy for the 2023 season.
Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom fully expects Sale to be healthy and a big part of the rotation for next season.
“You talk about the situations he’s been in, the things that have happened, there’s no reason looking at next year that he shouldn’t be able to be a huge part of this,” chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said. “But obviously, you could probably go back and find instances of me saying exactly that in a lot of different ways over the last few years. And we know that when somebody hasn’t carried a workload in a while, it means certain things for how you should plan.”
The fact of the matter is the Red Sox have no choice but having Sale to be a ‘huge part’ of next season.
Boston will pay Sale $27.5 million for the 2023 season. The Red Sox need to see their former ace back on the mound pitching meaningful innings.
“He’s a part of this,” Bloom said. “You guys know what he can do. We were really encouraged by how he looked when he came back in that short time before he got hurt again. We fully expect him to be a huge part of our success next year. It’s always our responsibility to make sure that we’re prepared for as many things as possible that could go wrong. So that’s going to be a part of our offseason planning this year.”
As Bloom approaches the offseason, acquiring additional starting pitching for the rotation is important. The Red Sox need to establish who the true ace of the staff is moving forward. It’s shouldn’t be Sale just because of how much money he makes.
Boston needs to acquire younger top of the rotation type arms.
A move of that magnitude will cost the Red Sox their top prospects. Which brings us back to why Bloom needs Sale to be a “huge part” of 2023. The financial impact and the fact it’s incredibly unlikely Bloom will part with the prospects to acquire a premium ace for his rotation.
“We obviously have to plan on whether it’s with him or anybody having to account for innings coming from other places,” Bloom said. “But I also think both within this group — with some of our tremendous sports medicine performance staff and also I think around the industry — I think we’re seeing teams look at workload in a better way than just looking at an innings total. And getting people to a position where the day-to-day workload that they are maintaining is steady and is a lot more important than just deciding an arbitrary innings number. That played into some of how we handled (Brayan) Bello this year and allowing him to pitch until the end and not be bound by an arbitrary innings limit. So, same would apply to Chris. It’s obviously a different set of injuries, a different stage of his career, but we have to be mindful of it all.”
The Red Sox need to be cautious with Sale, again, they have no choice due to his injury history.
Bloom has to acquire premium young pitching. If Sale is injured on and off again next season, Boston will be in a similar position as they were this season.
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