Sale out until June
Chris Sale has been feeling better in recent days, but a stress fracture in his rib will cause him to miss at least the first two months of the season.
The Red Sox placed Sale on the 60-day injured list on Monday, making him ineligible to return before June. He hasn’t thrown since hurting his rib while throwing a pitch at Florida Gulf Coast University during the MLB lockout in February.
Sale told reporters in Fort Myers on Saturday that a recent MRI showed that the bone is healing and the bruising is going down. He said he could throw now if he needed to, but wants to be sure he’s healthy before he starts ramping up.
“I feel good, night and day,” he told reporters. “I can run. I can jump. I can twist. I can start doing some things. There is nothing going on with the muscle. It’s just the bone, which is a good thing. But you have to make sure the muscles don’t do something before the bone is ready to handle it. They attach. This pulls on this. And if this pulls too much it can be irritated or do something to it.”
Giving Sale guaranteed time to heal is a safe bet to ensure he doesn’t rush himself back. This way he can take his time and likely make some rehab starts before he returns to the big leagues.
The Red Sox will go into the season with a rotation of Nathan Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck, Michael Wacha and Rich Hill.
James Paxton, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, is also expecting a mid-season return.
The Sox also added righthander Tyler Danish to the big league roster. The 27year-old hasn’t been in the big leagues since 2018. He has a career 4.85 ERA in 13 innings over three years with the White Sox. He had a 3.84 ERA with 79 strikeouts and 15 walks in 70-1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in the Angels organization last year.
MLB also announced that former Red Sox utility man Danny Santana, currently a free agent, was suspended 80 games after testing positive for Boldenone, a performance-enhancing drug. Santana along with two other free agents, Richard Rodríguez and José Rondón, were suspended for the same drug.
They’re the first three players to be suspended for PEDs since the lockout ended. Players were not being tested for PEDs during the lockout, worrying industry experts who predicted players would try to fast-track PEDs in the downtime.