BOSTON (AP) — Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale broke his right wrist in a bicycle accident over the weekend and will miss the rest of the season, the team said Tuesday, the latest setbacks during three years of injuries for the Bostonians. ace
Sale had surgery Monday and is expected to be ready for the start of spring training next year.
“You can’t make this up,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said Tuesday. “It stinks. It’s really unfortunate. We’re relieved it wasn’t worse, obviously. I’m glad this wasn’t worse. But it’s been unlucky 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, pitching 5 2/3 innings. He suffered a broken left pinky finger when 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 on his own during the lockout.
“We need to send some people to find whoever has Chris Sale’s voodoo doll and get it back.” Bloom said.
Bloom said Sale rode his bike home after a pitching session Saturday at Boston College, near his home. He took his bike out for lunch again and hit something while going down a hill, throwing him off the bike and causing what he called Bloom. “Pretty hard spill.”
Sale’s left pinky, which is still healing, was not injured in the crash, Bloom said.
Sale has thrown just 48 1/3 innings in the regular season and nine in the postseason since late 2019. He missed the pandemic-shortened 2020 season due to Tommy John surgery and is 5-1 with 3.16 ERA in past nine starts. course He has recorded just 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.
The Red Sox came within two wins of the World Series in 2021, but are last in the AL East thanks in part to injuries that have decimated both their starting rotation and regular lineup. Boston entered Tuesday at 54-56, 4 1/2 games out of the final AL wild-card spot.
Bloom said he had expected Sale to pitch again this season after recovering from a torn pinky.
He’s spoken to Sale over the past few days and said he’s still in high spirits “An incredibly strange series of events.”
Bloom said the team will develop a plan for Sale’s 2023 season in light of all the missed time.
“Obviously we’re going to have to do it and be smart about it,” Bloom said. “If we want to play more than 162, we have to build our team to have a lot of opening pitching depth. This has been a major organizational focus in recent years. Obviously, it has been tested this year.
“It just shows the importance of this pipeline and continuing to build this depth and we plan to go into next year with a lot of early release options,” he added. Bloom continued. “Knowing that whether it’s Chris or somebody else, things happen and we’re going to need people to step up throughout the season if we want to play in the postseason.”
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