Red Sox ace Chris Sale showing MLB Comeback Player of the Year promise
Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale is back. After making his second start of Spring Training he now has three innings, three hits allowed, a 0.00 ERA, and seven strikeouts with five (!!!) coming yesterday.
Obviously, it’s only Spring Training so you can’t over analyze it too much, but I think Sale has a real chance at winning comeback player of the year for the Sox.
Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale has seven All-Star game appearances in 12 seasons.
Excluding 2021 and 2022 (where Sale only pitched a total of 11 games), Sale has a career 3.03 ERA and FIP of 2.90. It’s a fair case to say that Sale won’t be pitching like he did during his days with the White Sox or his early years with the Sox when he was in the peak of his career, but if he can stay healthy I think he can surprise some people.
The last time Sale pitched a full season, The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl and Kevin Durant led the Golden State Warriors to their second straight NBA championship. How time flies.
Fast forward to present day and Sale is prepping through this spring to pitch a full season and help his team be the best they could be in a competitive AL East.
Right now, baseball reference has Sale projected to throw only 67 innings and post a 3.76 ERA. I feel like that’s a fair assessment for a pitcher who hasn’t pitched a full season since before the world knew what COVID-19 was.
One thing to keep in mind with Sale trying to comeback this season, is how will the pitch clock effect his arm long term.
Obviously, we’ve seen him pitch during the pitch clock era because he’s gotten a couple of Spring Training starts under his belt now, but how effective will he be when it’s late July/ early August, he has double digit starts and he has to grind a game in the dog days of summer?
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I think that if (and hopefully when) Sale is able to stay healthy, he’ll be one of the best pitchers in the Red Sox rotation along with Bryan Bello who I am very high on.
In regards to the CPOTY award, why not Sale? If he comes in and impresses the masses by staying healthy, the results will come naturally. Last season veteran pitcher Justin Verlander was coming back from Tommy John surgery (which is much worse than what Sale is coming back from) and went 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA in the regular season.
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Will Sale go 18-4 and have a sub two ERA? Probably not. Can Sale have an over .500 winning percentage and have a sub three ERA? I think so.
Sale doesn’t need to have a Verlander-esque season to win this award, he just needs to find a way to stay on the field and take the hill every fifth day and I think he has a shot at winning this award