While the delay to the start of the MLB season won’t accelerate Chris Sale’s rehab, it might allow him to miss fewer games.
The Boston Red Sox ace has a flexor strain in his elbow that prompted the team to shut him down, though multiple opinions said Tommy John surgery was not necessary.
Given the initial timeline for Sale to be reevaluated, it seems likely that in the next day or two is when the team might have a bit more direction as to whether he should continue resting or begin a throwing program. During a conference call Friday, Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said the plan for the 30-year-old remains the same.
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“From a medical perspective, nothing really changes with that,” Bloom said Friday, via MassLive. “We knew he was going to be unable to pitch in a game for a little while and we also know, obviously, there’s uncertainty regarding his pitching status generally that we want to resolve. We’re still going to want to resolve that. We’re still going to want to progress him. We haven’t gotten to that point yet, but we’re still going to work, even during this time period, without games, to get some progress and get some more definition on his status.”
It’s unclear what the target date for Sale to be ready for game action would be — he already was going to miss the start of the season after pneumonia set his spring training back two weeks. But by the way the team has approached things, it seems like they are content taking things slow with him in hopes that he’ll be available down the stretch instead of forcing him into early games.
Major League Baseball’s delay will be at least two weeks, making April 9 the earliest possible date for Opening Day.
