Why Chris Sale's Expected To Bounce Back Next Season In Red Sox Rotation

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Scott Neville | Sep 27, 2022

Why Chris Sale's Expected To Bounce Back Next Season In Red Sox Rotation /

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One of the potential key pieces of the 2023 Boston Red Sox roster is considered to be an afterthought at this point given his extensive injury history over the last few years.

Chris Sale, barring a wildly unexpected decision, will opt into a two-year, $55 million deal this offseason, extending his time in a Red Sox uniform. While his injuries are typically random, frustrating, and make his awful contract look worse by the day, he's still a good player.

MLB.com's Will Leitch pegged Sale as the Red Sox candidate most likely to rebound after a lost season.

"It’s always a little bit of a roller coaster with Sale, but he ended up making only two starts this year... which gives him 11 since 2019," Leitch wrote Monday. "His luck can’t possibly get any worse -- can it?"

While the reason behind his analysis is quite somber, Leitch has a point. The southpaw, who leads Major League Baseball history in strikeouts per nine innings and strikeouts per walk, has plenty left in the tank entering his age 34 season.

In his 11 starts over the course of the last two seasons, Sale's posted a 3.17 ERA with a 57-to-13 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 48 1/3 innings pitched.

Sale should be an afterthought for Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom as he builds the roster due to the fact that he cannot be relied on. However, should Sale stay healthy throughout the offseason (no more bike riding) and spring training, he'll likely be a frontline starter.

There's going to need to be plenty of depth in the rotation given his recent injury history but the upside of Sale is an ace, and that should not be forgotten.

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Published Sep 27, 2022

SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu