Sale’s return pushed back
Sox ace has non-baseball medical issue
Chris Sale’s return to the Red Sox has been pushed back.
The Red Sox lefty has experienced a non-baseball medical issue that forced him to stop throwing, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said on Saturday. Sale is expected to begin throwing again soon.
“He’s had a small, it’s a personal medical issue — it’s not orthopedic, it’s not COVID-related — that paused his throwing for a little while,” Bloom said. “So, we want to respect the privacy that it’s not baseball-related. He should be back throwing in a matter of days, but it’s obviously slowing him down. Everything else is fine.”
Sale has been on the 60-day injured list since April 4 after he suffered a stress fracture in his right rib cage in March. Bloom said the Red Sox were originally hoping to have Sale back around when he’s first eligible on June 6, but that’s now been pushed back at least a few weeks. A late June return for Sale sounds like the best-case scenario.
Sale threw a sevenpitch bullpen on April 26, marking the first time he’s thrown off a mound since the rib injury.
James Paxton also experienced a setback as the new Red Sox starter works his way back from Tommy John surgery. Bloom said Paxton had a “little” posterior elbow soreness that they had checked out and imaged, but it isn’t a major concern.
The Red Sox previously had believed Paxton — who signed a one-year, $10 million deal with a two-year team option — was ahead of schedule in his recovery, with a return before the All-Star break possible. But that seems unlikely now.
“It’s rare that you get from one end of a Tommy John rehab to the other without a little bump in the road,” Bloom said. “It doesn’t look like a big deal. He’s not throwing right now, but hopefully we’ll be ramping him back up in the next couple of weeks.”
Hill, Varitek test positive for COVID
Red Sox starter Rich Hill and catching coach Jason Varitek have both tested positive for COVID-19. Manager Alex Cora said they’re both doing OK.
Hill — who started Thursday — was placed on the COVID-19 related injured list Friday after experiencing symptoms. He needs to test negative twice before his return.
Kiké Hernandez, who also went on the COVID IL Friday after having symptoms, returned to the Red Sox on Saturday and was in the lineup batting sixth as the center fielder. Jarren Duran, who replaced Hernandez on Friday, was sent back down to TripleA Worcester.
Without Hill available, Cora still has some flexibility with how he handles the starting rotation with an off day this Monday and Thursday, For now, Garrett Whitlock will stay in the rotation and start Tuesday’s game in Atlanta, with Nathan Eovaldi following him on Wednesday.
Tanner Houck will also remain in the bullpen.
“We talked about how we’re going to address the whole thing, and I think where we are at right now and with Whit stretched out and us believing that Tanner can do what Whit was doing earlier this season, and what he did last year, is a good spot for us to put him in the bullpen and use him like a hybrid kind of guy,” Cora said. “We still want him to get extended. It’s not a one-inning thing. It’s actually a multiple-inning reliever so that’s where we’re at.”
Practicing patience
Bloom met with the media for more than 20 minutes on Saturday and addressed a flurry of questions related to the Red Sox’ poor start. But while he’s certainly unhappy with the results, he cautioned against overreacting.
“We’ve dug ourselves a hole,” Bloom said. “There’s no question. We haven’t played well. Panic isn’t going to help. We have to play better. We put ourselves in this situation, but if we’re going to get out of it, we’re going to get out of it by doing those things that we know we can do well. There’s a difference between urgency and panic, and I think we certainly need to show more urgency than we hoped we would be feeling at this point in the season. But this game isn’t going to reward panic.”
Would Bloom be open to making an early-season trade? He never rules anything out, but isn’t going to make a big move just for the sake of shaking things up after one month of baseball.
“I think we should be open to making trades at any point if it’s something that helps the organization,” Bloom said. “Typically it’s easier to do those at times of year when all 30 teams are talking, but I would say almost always there’s at least some kind of conversation you’re having with at least one team. Different teams are in different places with this. I do think if you’re making a decision in response solely to what’s happened in the first 30 days of the season, more often than not — every decision is on a different timetable, but more often than not, you’re opening yourself up to doing something you’re going to regret. And there are a lot of examples of that. …
“As much as I think we should be open and willing to do business at any point, we need to be careful being too reactive to a month of baseball and doing something that we’ll regret.”