Chris Sale still is coming to terms with his bad news.
The Boston Red Sox ace discussed with reporters Tuesday the disappointment he feels about starting the 2022 season on the 60-day Injured List. Sale is recovering from a stress fracture he suffered in his right ribcage during the MLB lockout. The injury sidelined him for the entirety of spring training, and he always knew he wouldn't be ready for Opening Day.
However, Sale recently has said he's feeling good and was expecting to start throwing in the near future and return to the mound shortly thereafter. That's why learning he won't pitch for Boston before early June caught him off guard.
"I definitely thought I was going to be ready quicker than that, for sure," Sale said, via MassLive.com's Christopher Smith. "But I sat down in the office yesterday with(Red Sox chief baseball officer) Chaim (Bloom), (assistant general manager) Eddie Romero, (head trainer) Brad (Pearson) and AC (manager Alex Cora) running through everything, and this is what made the most sense.
"Especially from the medical standpoint of generally speaking however many weeks you have off of throwing, that's how many it’s going to take to get you back into the swing of things. I've had a lot of time off. I guess me not really knowing what it brings ... I was thinking I was going to be able to get out there earlier. But that just wasn't the case."
Sale hasn't thrown in almost six weeks. Results of the MRI Sale underwent last week show his rib is healing. He detailed to reporters what kind of physical activity he can do.
"I feel normal right now," Sale said. "I'm starting to do a lot more activities. Starting to run. Throwing is right around the corner. Jumping stuff. I can get articulation now. I can twist. I can do everything.
"But there's still a little bit of stuff we have to do to stay on top of it and really get over the hump. We're kind of like on top of the hump. We're really close to hitting that downward swoop. Obviously it sucks to hear the news. It's a (expletive) situation. But I've got two options. I can either do it or not do it."
Sale said he's pain-free and is eager to ramp up his rehabilitation process in order to return to the mound as soon as possible. Despite his admitted tendency to be headstrong, he defers to the Red Sox's medical staff to set the most appropriate timetable for his comeback.
" ... but again, you've got to do this (rehab) the right way, you go to do this the way professionals are telling me to do this," he concluded, per WEEI's Rob Bradford. "We're gonna go that way. I've been through this enough times with this team, with this training staff to know they're not feeding me lines of crap. They're doing what's best for me and what's best for the team, and I respect and appreciate that."
The Red Sox will open their regular season schedule Thursday in New York where they visit the Yankees. Sale would have loved to be on the mound in the Bronx, but injury has prevented that from happening. Such a turn of events would dishearten anybody in that situation, and Sale leaves no doubt the extent to which that's the case.
