Chris Sale opts in to remaining 2 years of contract

Yaz4Ever

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Not remotely shocking. Hopefully he performs at the level we've expected from him, but I've always been concerned about his longevity due to his build. Pedro proved a lot of people wrong, so I was optimistic about Sale.
 

TapeAndPosts

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Not remotely shocking. Hopefully he performs at the level we've expected from him, but I've always been concerned about his longevity due to his build. Pedro proved a lot of people wrong, so I was optimistic about Sale.
Pedro proved a lot of people wrong for a while, but his last great season was age 33, his first year with the Mets. Every player is different but it's hard not to surmise he would have lasted longer with a different body type.

Sale will be 34 next season, for what it's worth. But I like to believe his age 31 and 33 seasons are still in his arm, unused and ready. ;)
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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At this point for me, anything Sale brings to the table needs to be considered a bonus. He shouldn’t be factored as a significant contributor.
This is the only sensible approach to this. He's been broken for years and it's likely he'll break again. Build a team without him and if he's able to pitch then figure it out then. You can't count on him for anything.
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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At this point for me, anything Sale brings to the table needs to be considered a bonus. He shouldn’t be factored as a significant contributor.
While this is all good and nice.... that $30M still has to be factored in. I don't know what the budget is.... I don't give a flying F about Henry's wallet... .I know that there WILL be a budget and that Chris Sale has to be considered in that budget. If he's "not considered" in here, then the hypothetical budget (whatever it is) has to somehow be imagined at $30M less than what it actually is when we all discuss the roster. Bitch all we want about Henry spending (or not)... there's an actual number he'll set and it's likely pliable, but not much when it'll come to penalties for the future and tax implications. Just saying that he shouldn't factor doesn't mean they should run out and sign Rodon. He could be another $25M waste (I guess we could all say that it was bad planning since he's rarely healthy through a full season) and that Bloom should have figured that Rodon would only pitch 100 innings and should also have signed another $20M AAV pitcher as insurance.
Sorry... he absolutely has to be figured in. Bloom should have him penciled in as the no. 1 starter on the team next season.
 

Ganthem

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I wonder if this year is Sale's final chance with the Sox. If he has another injury plagued or ineffective year, they will just eat the remaining money on the last year of his contract and release him.
 

P'tucket rhymes with...

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I wonder if this year is Sale's final chance with the Sox. If he has another injury plagued or ineffective year, they will just eat the remaining money on the last year of his contract and release him.
Unlikely that they will release him outright unless he's blocking someone, which seems a tad unlikely given the current state of the pitching corps(e). Someone has to eat the last few innings of a blow out, might as well make the busted guy earn at least a bit of his salary.
 

biollante

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He will slip on some snow while thinking about Spring Training and will be out until November 2023.

Actually, I have always thought that he wants to pitch, but his track record is bizarre. Maybe we get 2 good years with him.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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He will slip on some snow while thinking about Spring Training and will be out until November 2023.

Actually, I have always thought that he wants to pitch, but his track record is bizarre. Maybe we get 2 good years with him.
Slipping on snow would be a hell of a trick for a guy who is unlikely to set foot anywhere where there might be snow this winter.

He had one year of bizarre random injuries (2022). I see absolutely no reason not to expect him to report to Ft Myers in February ready to go, and no reason to think he won't make 25-30+ starts during 2023.
 

scottyno

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I wonder if this year is Sale's final chance with the Sox. If he has another injury plagued or ineffective year, they will just eat the remaining money on the last year of his contract and release him.
Why would they do that? Unless he had an injury that would carry over into 2024 they gain almost nothing by releasing him.
 

P'tucket rhymes with...

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Slipping on snow would be a hell of a trick for a guy who is unlikely to set foot anywhere where there might be snow this winter.

He had one year of bizarre random injuries (2022). I see absolutely no reason not to expect him to report to Ft Myers in February ready to go, and no reason to think he won't make 25-30+ starts during 2023.
If I would bet on anyone to break a hip on an ice patch in Boca, it would be Chris Sale.

Not saying he won't, but saying there's "no reason" to think a 34 year old guy who last made 25 starts three years ago might be a little too strong a proposition.
 

joe dokes

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If I would bet on anyone to break a hip on an ice patch in Boca, it would be Chris Sale.

Not saying he won't, but saying there's "no reason" to think a 34 year old guy who last made 25 starts three years ago might be a little too strong a proposition.
I suppose a clue could be found in seeing how many 34yr olds 2 yrs removed from TJS were able to do so.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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If I would bet on anyone to break a hip on an ice patch in Boca, it would be Chris Sale.

Not saying he won't, but saying there's "no reason" to think a 34 year old guy who last made 25 starts three years ago might be a little too strong a proposition.
Two years ago, no one made 25 starts. Of course, he wasn't going to make any starts that season regardless because of the Tommy John surgery. Last season (2021) he made about as many starts as you'd expect a guy returning from TJS to make. This season, he suffered three fluke injuries, one of which I doubt would have happened without the second. He's probably not on the bicycle to break his wrist if he wasn't already on the IL with that fluky as fuck broken finger. None of those injuries are predictive of anything. Provided he's recovered fully from them, he should be good to go for 2023.

There's no guarantee of good health for any player at any time. He has as good a chance of making 25+ starts next year as Nick Pivetta or Garrett Whitlock or Brayan Bello or any other pitcher who might make the Red Sox rotation.
 

chrisfont9

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I wonder if this year is Sale's final chance with the Sox. If he has another injury plagued or ineffective year, they will just eat the remaining money on the last year of his contract and release him.
What was his velocity this summer? They would probably try to find him a bullpen spot. I think we can look out over the horizon and not wonder if the Sox will have filled all their bullpen spots. We are a long way from the Astros.
 

P'tucket rhymes with...

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Two years ago, no one made 25 starts. Of course, he wasn't going to make any starts that season regardless because of the Tommy John surgery. Last season (2021) he made about as many starts as you'd expect a guy returning from TJS to make. This season, he suffered three fluke injuries, one of which I doubt would have happened without the second. He's probably not on the bicycle to break his wrist if he wasn't already on the IL with that fluky as fuck broken finger. None of those injuries are predictive of anything. Provided he's recovered fully from them, he should be good to go for 2023.

There's no guarantee of good health for any player at any time. He has as good a chance of making 25+ starts next year as Nick Pivetta or Garrett Whitlock or Brayan Bello or any other pitcher who might make the Red Sox rotation.
Three years ago, not two. And William of Occam is spinning in his grave fast enough right now to light up London.
 

mauidano

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I hope he wins the Cy Young Award the next two seasons. He's due for some good luck other than being filthy rich for not doing much.

He's going to be on the team so go get it Chris. Pulling for him to be freaking awesome.
 

Petagine in a Bottle

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I get the frustration with Sale, but who among the Sox current pitchers projects to be better than him next year? He’s a pretty important part of this team given his salary and the teams relative lack of pitching. I imagine if he’s healthy, he will be good. A big if, of course.
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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Two years ago, no one made 25 starts. Of course, he wasn't going to make any starts that season regardless because of the Tommy John surgery. Last season (2021) he made about as many starts as you'd expect a guy returning from TJS to make. This season, he suffered three fluke injuries, one of which I doubt would have happened without the second. He's probably not on the bicycle to break his wrist if he wasn't already on the IL with that fluky as fuck broken finger. None of those injuries are predictive of anything. Provided he's recovered fully from them, he should be good to go for 2023.

There's no guarantee of good health for any player at any time. He has as good a chance of making 25+ starts next year as Nick Pivetta or Garrett Whitlock or Brayan Bello or any other pitcher who might make the Red Sox rotation.
Generally agree with you on all this, buuuuut…. Pivetta has proven himself to be a horse at this point. Bello is too green to project for a full workload of more than 160 innings (he could get there and it’d be awesome if he does), Whitlock has too many injuries and no long starting track record to project. Pivetta is the only guy on the staff that you can comfortably project to not hit the IL for any significant time next season
 

mauf

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There's no guarantee of good health for any player at any time. He has as good a chance of making 25+ starts next year as Nick Pivetta or Garrett Whitlock or Brayan Bello or any other pitcher who might make the Red Sox rotation.
Pivetta made 33 starts this season and 31 last. Sale made a total of 14 starts over the past three seasons after making 25 in 2019.

Neither is guaranteed health in 2023, but I don’t think it’s accurate to say they are equally likely to start 25 games. Especially since Sale is four years older.
 

Van Everyman

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A healthy Chris Sale would be a great addition to this team. We have no good reason to believe we’ll ever see that again.
 
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cornwalls@6

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Nope and nope.
And if he wins his third World Series title, for a third team, in a few days? This one bad contract, over a 30+ year career, in a business where the nature of it is to have hits and misses, invalidates everything else? It’s a terrible contract that we’re now stuck with until the end of its term, but it defining his entire career seems over the top.
 

Whoop-La White

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Last year was bizarre but hardly the pattern of someone with a broken body. Even so, Sale is spent money, for all intents and purposes. You pencil him in the back end of the rotation and hope he can get enough repetition in to still string some quality starts together. Maybe avoid outdoor bike rides, get a damn Peloton.

What might harm his chances to contribute is not being injury-prone but the fact that he hasn’t pitched all that much in three seasons. The muscle memory only lasts so long.
 

lexrageorge

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And if he wins his third World Series title, for a third team, in a few days? This one bad contract, over a 30+ year career, in a business where the nature of it is to have hits and misses, invalidates everything else? It’s a terrible contract that we’re now stuck with until the end of its term, but it defining his entire career seems over the top.
Exactly. HoF voters will look at the rings above all else.
 

ShaneTrot

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Lackey was injured and hopeless here for a while and was resurrected in 2013. That's what I am hoping for from Sale next year. He is a sunk cost, hopefully, he can contribute.
 

jon abbey

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What might harm his chances to contribute is not being injury-prone but the fact that he hasn’t pitched all that much in three seasons. The muscle memory only lasts so long.
I wouldn’t worry about this part, Luis Severino only threw 18 innings from 2019-21 but came back and was very good this year. He only threw 102 innings (plus 11 in the postseason) but that’s mostly because NY kept his innings down after the three years of inactivity. Severino is younger but I don’t think that matters.
 

joe dokes

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I wouldn’t worry about this part, Luis Severino only threw 18 innings from 2019-21 but came back and was very good this year. He only threw 102 innings (plus 11 in the postseason) but that’s mostly because NY kept his innings down after the three years of inactivity. Severino is younger but I don’t think that matters.
Verlander pitched 1 game in 2020 and none in 2021. He's old.