Coming off an injury ridden 2018 season, Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale looks to bounce back in 2019 and return to his ace status.
2018 was an interesting year for Boston Red Sox lefty Chris Sale. He missed almost the whole second half of the season with a concerning shoulder injury. Thankfully, he was able to come back ready for the postseason, making 3 starts and 2 relief appearances in route to a World Series title.
Sale is entering the title defense campaign, Sale is healthy and ready to return to form. The ace is also entering the final year of his current contract and is scheduled to make $15 million in 2019. The Red Sox have yet another big decision on their plate in regards to re-signing Sale.
Let’s take a look at a few goals for Chris Sale for this upcoming season.
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1.Stay healthy
Injuries have begun to catch up to Sale over the past couple of seasons. He spent 2 trips on the Disabled List post All Star break. Even in the playoffs, his status was questionable due to his injury. Now, ultimately, he pitched through it, but in doing so definitely took a toll on his arm.
The Red Sox are going to have to monitor their ace’s workload if they want him healthy at the end of the year. in 2018, Sale made 7 starts post all-star break as opposed to 20 in the first half. Most of those starts were a couple of innings, as he pitched 29 post all-star and 129 before. In the playoffs, Sale appeared in 5 games, making 3 starts. All his 3 starts were in Game 1 of each series (ALDS, ALCS, WS).
Chris Sale’s most note-able performance in the 2018 post season was when he came on for the 9th inning in Game 5 of the World Series where he clinched a championship for the Red Sox. He faced 3 batters, and struck them all out, ending the season on a nasty slider to Manny Machado.
If the Boston Red Sox are going to have a shot at being the first team to win back to back World Series titles since the Yankees in 1999-2000, Chris Sale is going to have to stay healthy. It will be very interesting to see how they manage him; I’m sure Alex Cora has a great plan.
2. Pitch over 175 innings and record 250 strikeouts
Now, if Chris Sale can stay healthy and make about 30 starts this season, 175 innings and 250 strikeouts can easily be attainable. In his first year with the Boston Red Sox in 2017, Sale pitched 214.1 innings and recorded 308 strikeouts. Both of those numbers led the MLB. Last year, in 2018, Sale pitched 158 innings and recorded 237 strikeouts.
Before last season, the last time Sale didn’t reach 175 innings was in 2014, where he pitched 174 innings with the Chicago White Sox. Sale has eclipsed 250 strikeouts only twice in his career. He led the league in 2015 with 274 strikeouts and then again in 2017 with 308. Sale would’ve hit that number last year if he was healthy, as he had 237 strikeouts, falling just short.
There is no reason as to why Sale can’t hit 250 strikeouts this season. The only variable is his health, as that is a key to Chris Sale.
3. Win 1st career Cy Young Award
The fact that Chris Sale hasn’t won a Cy Young award in his career is astonishing. He puts up elite numbers year in and year out. The lefty was a homegrown ace for the Chicago White Sox before getting traded to Boston in 2017, where he also took over the Ace role for the Red Sox.
He has led baseball in strikeouts twice in his career, 274 k’s in 2015 with Chicago and 308 k’s in 2017 with Boston. The closest Sale has come to winning the award was in his first year with the Red Sox. Sale finished second in the voting behind Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians. Last year, Sale finished 4th in the voting. After getting snubbed in 2017, Sale should be hungry to win his first award of his 9 year career.
2019 could be the year the lefty finally gets it done. If he is able to stay healthy, there is no reason as to why Sale can’t win the award. Blake Snell of the rival Tampa Bay Rays is going to try to defend his title, but Sale can get it done. Sale is in a contract year, so he is going to leave everything on that mound.
2019 is a very important season for the Boston Red Sox. Besides defending their World Series title, they also have to worry about a lot of big name players becoming free agents including Chris Sale. If Sale can hit these goals, then the Red Sox should hit the ultimate goal in resigning their ace.