Ailing Sale could miss Opening Day
Sox won’t rush ace back
FORT MYERS — Chris Sale’s mild case of pneumonia has delayed the start of his spring training, and there’s a chance the Red Sox ace may miss Opening Day as a result.
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The left-hander was at camp Saturday, throwing catch and participating in some light workouts, but he’s still not fully recovered from the flu. The Red Sox are being cautious with Sale as he works back to full strength.
“I think he’s progressing along fine,” Red Sox interim manager Ron Roenicke said. “We’re going to still go a little easy with him and try to keep him out of fundamentals now and more inside, he can be with (strength and conditioning coach) Kiyoshi (Momose) inside and the trainers. Try to get his cardio where it is so it’s controlled. …
“They’ll be careful with that,” Roenicke added of Sale’s illness. “You don’t want to set him back any. So they’ll really watch that well. The good thing is that baseball-wise, all that’s good. It’s just a matter of getting him strong.”
And if that sets Sale back to the point that he can’t start on Opening Day, so be it.
“Obviously he’s huge for our starting rotation and is one of the best pitchers in the game,” Roenicke said. “So whenever we can get him to start up, it would be silly for us to try to push him to make him come back sooner than probably he should physically. So it’s not worth taking a risk on having him Opening Day exactly and where we’re pushing him to get him there.
“He’s important to us as we go through this season and hopefully get into the playoffs and keep up the strong there. mayor. To push anybody nowadays, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for any of us.”
Verdugo unlikely for opener
Roenicke revealed Saturday that the injury new outfielder Alex Verdugo is recovering from is a stress fracture in his back. It caused him to miss the final two months and the playoffs with the Dodgers last season and could force him to miss the start of the season with the Red Sox.
Roenicke said that the team knew about the injury before acquiring him last week in the trade that sent Mookie Betts and David Price to the Dodgers.
“It’s healing nice and the images that he’s taken through the offseason, it continues to heal,” Roenicke said. “It’s not healed completely, but it’s in a progression where they’re really liking how it’s coming along. It’s an injury that takes time. It takes a lot of time for this to heal. …
“To be honest with you, if everything goes right, he still may not be ready for Opening Day.”
Verdugo idolized Papi
Though Verdugo is from the West Coast, he said Saturday that he grew up rooting for the Red Sox. A big reason for that is David Ortiz, who he’s hoping to meet at some point.
“I’m telling you, if I see David Ortiz here, I’m giving him the biggest hug, I might even tear up,” Verdugo said. “That’s one guy that growing up, I don’t know what it was … David Ortiz was just the man, dude.
“I grew up and he was just my favorite guy. You see him doing stuff special, you see him tearing up the Yankees and now obviously I’m with Boston. Now I want to do it. Now I want to go do it. … That was like my main guy. I’m telling you, I’m so excited to meet him. I’m so excited.”
Verdugo made his first visit to Fenway Park last season with the Dodgers and it was a memorable trip. He hit a home run in his first game there and he said he wrote his name inside the Green Monster three times.
“I had a lot of childhood emotions come out of me,” Verdugo said. “I remember hitting the home run and just running around the bases. I thought I was a little kid in the candy store for the first time. I was just so happy and it’s like you’re walking on air. It’s just your dream come true.”