Seems like teams need to nix cycling in contracts
Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale broke his right wrist in a bike accident over the weekend and will miss the rest of the season, the team said Tuesday, the latest setback during an injury-plagued three years for the Boston ace.
Sale had surgery Monday and is expected to be ready for the start of spring training next year.
“You couldn’t make this up,” Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom said Tuesday. “It stinks. It’s really unfortunate. We’re relieved this wasn’t worse, obviously. Very glad this wasn’t worse. But it’s been such a run of bad luck for him and obviously for us.”
Sale’s latest injury raises questions about his future with the team once he’s healthy. The 33-year-old appeared in just two games this season, throwing 52⁄3 innings. He suffered a broken left pinkie finger when he was hit by a line drive against the New York Yankees on July 17 and had surgery the next day. The start of his season was delayed after he broke a rib while working out during the lockout.
“We need to dispatch some people to go find whoever has the Chris Sale voodoo doll and recover it,” Bloom said.
Bloom said Sale rode his bike home from a throwing session on Saturday at Boston College near his home. He took his bike out again to get lunch and hit something as he was going down a hill, throwing him from the bike and causing what Bloom called “a pretty rough spill.”
Sale’s still-healing left pinkie wasn’t harmed in the crash, Bloom said.
Sale has thrown only 481⁄3 innings in the regular season and nine in the postseason since the end of 2019. He missed the pandemic-shortened 2020 season because of Tommy John surgery and went 5-1 with a 3.16 ERA in nine starts last year. He’s logged only 14 starts, including three in the playoffs, over the past three seasons. He is in the third year of a five-year, $145 million deal.
Bloom said the team will develop a plan for Sale’s 2023 season in light of all the missed time.
“We’re obviously gonna have to do that and be smart with it,” Bloom said, without mentioning if Sale will be forced to give up his bike.
Trivia question
On this date in 1995, the Dodgers were forced to forfeit a home game to the St. Louis Cardinals. What was the cause?
They said it
From St. Louis closer Tom Henke, who got the save that night by getting one out: “As I walked in the dugout, I was thinking, ‘Hey, that was all right.’ I get a save and don’t have to do anything!’ ”
Trivia answer
It was ball night, and after a third time that fans threw balls onto the field, the umpiring crew of Jim Quick, Bob Davidson, Bill Hohn and Larry Poncino called for a forfeit with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Quick was the plate umpire and rung up Eric Karros ona check swing in the eighth. Karros was thrown out. Quick then called Raul Mondesi out on two very questionable strike calls in the ninth, leading to the ejections of Mondesi and manager Tommy Lasorda. The Dodgers went on to win the NL West by one game, then got swept in the NL Division Series by Cincinnati. It’s the last forfeit in MLB.