Chris Sale Is Being Awfully Tough On Himself Amid Latest Injury Rehab
BOSTON (CBS) -- Over the past several years, Chris Sale has been paid quite a lot of money to perform not a whole lot of pitching. If you're a fan who's frustrated with that situation ... then Sale understands that.
In an interview with The Boston Globe's Alex Speier, Sale was especially hard on himself when running through his circumstances over the past several years.
"I've not done my job for some freakin' time now," Sale told Speier. "Think about it. I had one full year in '17. Good year. Three quarters of a year in '18, won the World Series -- we'll call that one a great year. In '19, had the worst year of my career, ended up getting hurt. In '20, COVID, Tommy John. In '21, Tommy John, pitched for a quarter of the year and the playoffs. Serviceable at best, I'll call that. And then now."
Sale summed it up: "So I've been here for six years, I've given these people one full [expletive] year. You kidding me? I wouldn't like me either."
Obviously, injuries are part of sports, but that inescapable truth hasn't made Sale's reality any easier to endure.
Sale was acquired by former Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski in December of 2016. He finished second in AL Cy Young voting in 2017, his first season in Boston, when he went 17-8 with a 2.90 ERA and a league-leading 308 strikeouts. He kept that Cy Young form through July of 2018, but a shoulder injury severely limited him down the stretch, as he pitched just 17 innings total in August and September. He made five postseason appearances that year -- three starts and two relief appearances -- while posting a 4.11 ERA, but he did record the final out of the World Series, thus making it a successful season.
Dombrowski signed Sale to a five-year, $145 million deal after the World Series win, and he's pitched just 190 innings in the three seasons since.
Now, Sale won't debut in 2022 until June 6 at the earliest, as he recovers from a fractured rib. Sale said he'll do his best to limit the negativity in his own mind as he works to get back on the field.
"I'm almost positive there's bigger atrocities in the world than a cracked rib for a major league baseball player," Sale told Speier. "But it's a fine line that I deal with because the competitor in me won't allow that [negativity] to leave. But the person in me has to know, 'OK, this is not a stop-and-feel-sorry-for-yourself situation.'"