Reasons for optimism continue to accumulate around Fenway Park.
Two and a half months into the season, the Boston Red Sox are at the center of the AL East race, a surprising distance from the Tampa Bay Rays, who are in first place and comfortably ahead of the New York Yankees, preseason favorites. Many of Boston’s questions heading into the season centered on its rotation, led by Nathan Eovaldi Y Eduardo Rodriguez pedigree, but anchored in performance for much of the breeding season. Martin Perez, Nick Pivetta Y Garrett richards.
Underscoring the excitement surrounding the 2021 team is the impending return of the ace. Chris Sale, who has not pitched in a game since August 2019. While Sale’s role upon his return from Tommy John surgery remains unclear, the addition of a perennial Cy Young Award contender in the middle of the season represents potentially a bigger addition than anything the team can add by the change deadline.
Or, as Red Sox minor league player Connor Seabold put it on Twitter, “Boogeyman (boy scarer) is coming.”
“We take it day by day,” coach Alex Cora said. “Let’s see how it comes back tomorrow and we’ll do the next thing we have to do, but we’re not even talking about how we’re going to use it, where we’re going to use it, or when we’re going to use it.”
Publicly, the Red Sox are taking it easy, but Sale’s return and how well he can perform represents an undeniable X-factor in the team’s ambitions this season. According to front office sources, the team sees Sale playing a role in pushing the team to the playoffs. While Boston surprised many baseball observers by engaging in the conversation among the best teams in the sport, the addition of a pitcher of Sale’s caliber could make the team an even more serious contender, if it can stay healthy.
While the rear end of the rotation led to pitching for the first two months of the season, the trio of Perez, Pivetta and Richards have come back down to earth a bit, with their ERAs above 4.00. Eovaldi leads the staff with a 3.76 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 1.6 WAR. Rodriguez, meanwhile, is fighting with a 6.21 ERA and minus-0.4 WAR in 13 starts.
Sale, and potentially summoning top outfield prospect Jarren Duran, could force other teams in the East and around the AL East to beef up their rosters. Tampa Bay lost its ace, Tyler glasnow, due to injury on Tuesday. While Boston could make some additions around the trade deadline, it seems unlikely to move top prospects like Duran, Jeter Downs and Triston Casas in favor of a postseason run during the 2021 season.
“As much as we’re in it for the long haul, every chance to make the postseason is important,” baseball director Chaim Bloom said earlier this month. “We’ve talked about going back to the offseason, that balance between now and the future, and whatever we can try to do things to help each other on both fronts. That’s obviously hard to do. It’s not that simple.”
Sale pitched off the mound at Fenway Park last Friday for the first time since undergoing surgery, but while Cora and company are trying to temper expectations, his enthusiasm after the session was undeniable.
“We have to try not to get too excited. It was so good,” Cora said. “Just the energy and the quality of the pitches, the pace, he looked really good. Really good. He said it’s the best he’s ever felt during the whole process.”
Sale’s effectiveness upon his return is not a fact. New York Mets pitcher, Noah syndergaard, who underwent Tommy John surgery around the same time as Sale in March 2020, had to be detained for six weeks in late May after swelling emerged in his right elbow. At the moment, Sale appears to be scheduled to return sometime this summer after a fight against COVID-19 in January delayed his timeline.
Sale, one of the most competitive pitchers in the sport, hopes to return to his best form when he returns to the mound.
“I hope to be myself, to be the type that I’ve always been,” Sale said. “I just started throwing breaking balls and the first pair wasn’t pretty, but my expectation level was just as high, if not higher than ever.”
Although Sale could play a role in the team’s march to the playoffs, Boston is expected to be cautious given the remaining time of his five-year, $ 145 million contract, which will expire after the 2024 season. FanGraphs’ Steamer projections for 2021 suggest Sale will return for nine starts, posting a 3.21 ERA, 3.01 FIP, 1.06 WHIP with 11.9 K / 9 in 52 innings.
Sale suggested being open to a role in the bullpen if it meant skipping early rehab and getting back on the roster sooner.
“If they told me we needed a man in the bullpen or if they wanted to help me from there instead of doing a rehab assignment, I’d be open to that,” Sale said. “The faster I can get back to this team, I’d like. That’s way above my salary level and where I am now. I’m focused on my next day and getting off the mound, and then whatever the next step is to take that. “.
Sale defines his rehab process, which continued with a bullpen session at Triple-A Worcester Red Sox on Tuesday, as the “toughest challenge I’ve ever had in my life” and said “there have been some really good days, there have there have been some good days, there have been some shit days … “.
Now, more than a year after the procedure, Sale is beginning to turn the page into the next phase of his career.
“I’ve been able to put aside the fact that I have a huge scar on my arm and it was ripped open 15 months ago,” Sale said. “When I’m pitching, I feel normal. I feel like I did when I was a kid. I don’t have this thought in the back of my mind about surgery on any pitch or anything … like I’m starting to develop as a pitcher at Instead of being in the back of rehab. I don’t feel like I’m pitching in rehab. I feel like I’m pitching.
“If it were up to me,” Sale said, “I’d start tomorrow.”
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