The Boston Red Sox prefer to work from abundance when it comes to diagnosing Chris Sale’s ailing elbow.
Sale experienced elbow pain following his first live session of spring training and underwent an MRI on Monday. Upon seeing the results, the Red Sox decided to get a second opinion and sent the images to renowned surgeon Dr. James Andrews for him to review.
While the Red Sox won’t say what Andrews found, they’re still not sold and are thus getting another opinion on Sale’s elbow, interim manager Ron Roenicke revealed Wednesday. And as for what that means regarding Andrews’ examination, the Red Sox are keeping quiet.
Ron Roenicke said Chris Sale is waiting for one more opinion.
“We need to get this right. We want as many opinions as we can. Dr Andrews saw it and read the MRI. I don’t want to comment on it until we get one more opinion.”
— Jason Mastrodonato (@JMastrodonato) March 4, 2020
Dr. Neal ElAttrache, another respected surgeon who is the head team physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Rams, will now review Sale’s medicals before a final decision is made.
Roenicke cautioned not to expect the worst-case scenario, but it’s hard to feel good about anything regarding Sale’s health at the moment. Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom admitted Tuesday the team was “concerned” about Sale’s arm. It seems fairly obvious they saw something in the first MRI they didn’t like, which prompted them to get a second opinion from Andrews. When you’re dealing with one of the best pitchers in the game and major surgery with a year-plus of rehab is on the table, you’re going to want to be absolutely sure that’s the only real option before committing to that option.
So with all due respect to Roenicke, it’s hard not to expect the worst-case scenario, when the Red Sox probably aren’t the ones advocating for surgery and need multiple opinions to talk themselves out of that decision.
