SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Chris Sale is feeling healthy and hoping he finally, finally stays that way.
At Red Sox Winter Weekend on Saturday, the left-hander spoke with the media for roughly 20 minutes, the first time he’s spoken publicly since breaking his wrist in August while falling off a bicycle. That fall came in the middle of his rehab from pinkie surgery after he’d been struck by a comebacker to the mound in his second start of the season — a start that was delayed first by a broken rib and then by a personal, non-baseball medical reason.
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Couple all of that with missing the entire 2020 season and half of the 2021 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, and it’s been a brutal injury-laden stretch for the 33-year-old.
Sale doesn’t want to jinx himself, but he’s feeling good again, eager for the start of spring training and planning to be ready for Opening Day.
“Humpty Dumpty got put back together,” he quipped.
“I’ve kept myself in really good physical shape, my arm is feeling good. I don’t have any hesitation going forward with pitching. I just need to stay away from bikes and bad luck.”
We had a great weekend. Thanks for asking! pic.twitter.com/3dIYsbcbEt
— Red Sox (@RedSox) January 21, 2023
The day Sale fell off his bike early in August, a week after the trade deadline, he had just finished his first throwing session post-pinkie surgery at Boston College. (There was a concert at Fenway Park that night, so his rehab duties had shifted to the BC facilities.)
Sale said he was leaving his house to meet up with a friend and took his bike, something he did quite often back home with his three young sons in Florida.
“I don’t really remember the crash a whole lot, but I just know that the handlebars went hard left,” Sale said. “I didn’t even go over the handlebars. It just really kind of threw me straight to the ground. Next thing I know, my wrist is looking that way and I had to make some phone calls.”
Sale had surgery on his right wrist within 48 hours.
Six months later, it’s in the past, and what matters most is what Sale can provide the team going forward. Since signing a five-year, $145 million deal in 2019, Sale has pitched just one mostly healthy season, and that came in 2019 when he made 25 starts. He landed on the injury list in mid-August that year with elbow inflammation, missing the rest of that season before having Tommy John surgery the following March.
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Since then, Sale has pitched a total of 48 1/3 regular-season innings.
“I owe everybody,” Sale said. “I owe my teammates the starting pitcher they thought they were gonna get. I owe the front office the starting pitcher they paid for, and I owe the fans the performances that they’re paying to come and see.”
Pitching coach Dave Bush said he’ll be conservative with Sale early but doesn’t anticipate an “artificial limit” on the number of pitches or innings Sale throws.
“The biggest part is just recovery after he pitches,” Bush said. “I’m not looking specifically at his elbow or his wrist or his thumb or anything, or his back. Mostly it’s just how his body’s recovering. The mistake we sometimes make in baseball is we worry about one part of the body and we miss something else. So we’re looking at everything. How is your body recovering? How do you feel? Can you get on the mound on your side day? How’s the fatigue during games? We look at all of that together and that helps guide us.”
Sale hasn’t been shy about discussing how difficult the past few years have been for him mentally and in not being able to perform for his team or fulfill his contract.
“You put yourself in a situation where you’re just kind of waiting for the next bad thing to happen, and that is not clean living right there,” he said. “It was unfortunate. Could it be worse? Absolutely. If anything, I’ve said this before, but I feel like I’ve gained a tremendous amount of perspective through all this. I’ve had a really rough, really rough few years. But if you’ve looked throughout the entire world and what happened in my own backyard (with Hurricane Ian in Florida) just a couple of months ago, things can be much, much worse.”
Prior to the past three years, Sale wasn’t accustomed to this level of failure. He’d averaged 198 2/3 innings per season from 2012 through 2018. As an elite athlete unable to meet the lofty expectations he places on himself, he didn’t hesitate when asked to discuss the mental toll it’s taken and the benefits he’s gotten from seeking therapy.
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“I’ve talked to plenty of people — friends, family, professionals, all that stuff,” he said. “I don’t shy away from it. People go through struggles. Sometimes you need help. Sometimes you need to talk things out and find different avenues. It’s just perspective. I know that baseball and sports is just this larger-than-life thing. Everyone is so wrapped up, there’s just all this money, there’s all this time, there’s fame, but when you peel back the layers and get perspective on real life and what’s truly important, when you see some of the absolutely terrible things going on in the world, around the world, in our country, in my neighborhood, perspective is a beautiful thing.”
That said, Sale is hoping to prove he’s still the same pitcher the Red Sox signed to an extension to four years ago. He began throwing in early November and has already thrown off a mound a few times.
“I turn 34 in March. My arm is technically 30, right?” he said, referencing his lack of innings the last few seasons.
The main focus for Sale as he builds up his stamina for what he hopes is a full season is maintaining his shoulder routine and long toss program.
“I know arm strength is going to be something that I’m going to have to work really hard at just because I haven’t thrown a lot,” he said. “If you’re powerlifting 500 pounds and you don’t do it for a while, you’re gonna have to get back there. But it’s possible, so that’s my plan.”
He said he’s also excited for the 2023 team despite the low expectations. As he’s rehabbed over the past few seasons, he’s spent significant time around the organization’s minor leaguers and noted, in particular, his excitement to see more of pitchers Brayan Bello and Bryan Mata. The opportunity to pitch in a rotation with a pair of impressive veteran pitchers in James Paxton and Corey Kluber excites Sale, too. If health stays on their side, it could be an interesting season — even if it’s a big if.
“We won the World Series (in 2018) and the very next spring training, there were doubters, so there’s going to be doubters regardless,” Sale said. “You can be the best, you can be the worst, there’s going to be people dragging you down, so you can’t really pay attention to those guys. We have who we have, and we’re gonna go forward with it and we’re gonna fight like hell.”
A few other notes from Winter Weekend:
• Trevor Story, 11 days removed from internal brace surgery, was at Winter Weekend and is hoping to play at some point this season despite an estimated six-month timetable for recovery.
Story explained what led to the surgery.
“As I was ramping up the throwing program in the offseason and starting to put more on it and get ready for the season, it just felt a little different,” he said. “I just felt a little tingly feeling. That’s not something that should happen, so I immediately stopped for a bit and thought I would go get it checked out and ended up with surgery.”
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Story said he was surprised by the need for surgery and felt strong throughout last season despite dealing with elbow inflammation in 2021 with the Rockies.
“As I played the season last year and as the season went on, my arm felt stronger and I felt good about it,” he said. “Didn’t miss any time for my elbow. And obviously, I felt like I was gaining ground there (with arm strength) in the offseason, and this happened and here we are.”
• Bush said every pitcher has started throwing, including Paxton, Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck, and all are in line to begin spring training on time.
• With the Red Sox close to finalizing a deal for outfielder Adam Duvall, who’s expected to play a majority of his games in center, moving Kiké Hernandez to shortstop remains a likely option.
Hernandez has never played more than 25 games at short per season in his career, but he grew up playing the position and said it feels like riding a bike whenever he moves to the spot.
“I’ve kind of been waiting my whole life to be able to play short at the major-league level on a daily basis,” Hernandez said.
“I’m better suited for the infield just because I like to play the game fast and the game is a lot faster in the infield,” he added. “I like to be involved in the game, and there’s a lot more that I can do in the infield as far as communicating with my teammates and the way that I see the game.”
Hernandez noted the irony that he signed with the Red Sox in 2021 thinking he’d play second base but ended up spending the majority of his time in center field. Then last season, as a full-time outfielder, he signed a one-year, $10 million deal over the summer thinking he’d anchor center field in 2023, only to now be shifted to shortstop.
“I’m an infielder capable of playing outfield,” Hernandez said of how he views himself.
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• The Red Sox told Houck to remain stretched out at the outset of the offseason with the idea it’s much easier to scale back and slide him into the bullpen if needed.
When asked Saturday his preference, Houck didn’t hesitate.
“I’d love to start. I’ve started my whole life,” he said. “I’d like to continue that, but I’m also willing to step up with whatever the team needs to fill a role. I don’t want to be selfish in that way. I’m going to go out there and get as many outs as they want me to get no matter where it is, first or ninth inning.”
Houck said he’s had a normal offseason following September back surgery and that his pain immediately subsided following the surgery.
• Whitlock similarly said he’s feeling good after his season-ending hip surgery and has also gotten in some early work throwing off a mound. He said he not only feels better physically, but he feels better mechanically with his pitches compared to last year, particularly with his two-seamer. Because he didn’t have the lower-body strength last year, Whitlock said he felt like he was trying to force his two-seamer to break, whereas now he can throw it and it naturally breaks without the extra effort.
• Triston Casas was noticeably leaner and said he’s dropped 15 to 20 pounds with a series of revamped workouts this winter. He said he finished last season too heavy for his liking and wanted to put himself in a better position entering his first full season. While Casas still maintains his rookie eligibility, he said he’s not focused on winning rookie of the year but rather setting a goal of playing 150 or 160 games.
(Top photo of Chris Sale: Nathan Ray Seebeck / USA Today)