Chris Sale happy to just be "one of the guys" at first healthy spring training in years
BOSTON -- Throughout his professional career, Chris Sale has reached some all-time highs. The last few years, though, have obviously been filled with some lows.
Now entering spring training as a healthy pitcher for the first time since 2019, Sale is happy to be having the most basic of experiences in Fort Myers.
"[Alex Cora was] like, 'You wanna go out there or out here today?' And I said I've been treated special for long enough. I want to be one of the guys today," Sale said Wednesday. "So it's nice, being in the mix of it, going through being normal, having a workout, my running, PFPs on a day, bullpen days, and not coming in to just get work done. It's fun."
The 33-year-old Sale is coming off a litany of injuries from last year, including a broken rib from the preseason, a broken pinkie suffered in July, and a broken wrist suffered in a bicycle crash. Sale made just two starts all year, after having made just nine starts the year prior and zero starts in 2020, due to Tommy John surgery.
All of that came after he signed a five-year, $145 million contract to stay with the Red Sox. Sale has spoken in the past about how much it's been killing him to miss so much time, and reiterated that feeling on Wednesday.
"I was given that [contract] to do a job, and I haven't done that. You guys know me enough by now to know that that has eaten me alive," Sale said. "So I wouldn't say I'm trying to live up to a dollar amount. I'm just trying to live up to who I need to be."
On the positive front, Sale is feeling fine as spring training opens for pitchers and catchers, and he said he's ready to do as much work as the team will let him. He also shared that he's learned to take proper perspective when putting his last few years into context.
"I like to think I'm an adult now. So yeah, it's just perspective," Sale said. "I come back to that a lot. It's just perspective. We've all seen what's gone on in the world the last three years on my same timeline. Shoot, even what happened in my community a few months ago [with Hurricane Ian]. You wrote an article about it the other day, I appreciate that. But yeah, people lost their homes. I nicked a pinky, broke a wrist. I could've been in a Russian prison for 10 months -- how fun would that have been? So, perspective, man. Perspective. It's not gonna change anything that's happened, but hopefully it will change something in the future."
While the perspective helps Sale mentally, his feelings on the 2023 season will ultimately come down to how he performs physically. And when he gets that opportunity, Sale is ready to get back to being the pitcher he was before all of the injuries.
"Hand me the ball. I'm throwing it until you take it," Sale said of his workload expectations. "Hand me the ball, I'm going to compete until you tell me not to. And then I might give you a little bit of flak on the way out. But that's just my mindset right now."
