(Photo by Keith Allison)
I get it. Chris Sale wants the ball every five days--he’s a horse, and everyone knows that. But throughout his career, he’s demonstrated a tendency to taper off at the end of the season.
Playing with the White Sox, this yearly occurrence wasn’t a big deal; the team wasn’t going to make the playoffs anyway, so the only thing it did was put an annual stain on his shot to win the Cy Young. But now that he’s with the Red Sox, his late-season numbers become all the more important. If the Sox want to contend for a World Series title, they’re gonna need Sale to be playing his best baseball through October and into November.
As CBS Sports reported about a week ago, “Sale admitted he was trying way too hard early in the season [last year], ramping his fastball up to the mid-90s along with a wipeout slider in spring training. That carried over into the season's first half but was unsustainable over the long haul. His downturn started Aug. 1, when he allowed seven runs over five innings to the Indians and led to a 4.09 ERA over his final 11 starts.”
Sale claims he’s working on a new regimen to improve his stamina late into the year, but what’s undoubtedly the best thing for a guy who gets fatigued and also happens to lead the league in innings pitched? Rest. It’s as simple as that, and the Sox have the resources to give Sale the time off that he needs.
If Chris Sale is really a team-oriented guy, he should be willing to put aside the pride of leading the MLB in innings and commit to winning in the postseason.
Look down the rest of the projected rotation and you’ll find two other starters with significant injury concerns: Eduardo Rodriguez is coming off six months on the DL following reconstructive knee surgery, and I don’t buy the load of bullcrap that is David Price’s “self-healing” elbow (voodoo magic, as Scott would say). Go ahead and tell me honestly that you don’t worry about the health of a guy who was supposed to get Tommy John last season but apparently didn’t need it because the muscles in his arm just grew back. Huh? What’s the best thing we can give these guys throughout the 162 game (and hopefully more) haul? Rest.
It’s time for the Sox to seriously consider a six-man pitching rotation. So who’s the sixth option? Well, depending on how Steven Wright’s domestic violence situation plays out with the MLB, he could certainly fill that slot. I get it, he was 1-3 with an 8.25 ERA last year, but he also had his season cut short because of injury, and he’s only one year removed from an all-star campaign in which he went 13-6 with a 3.33 ERA and four complete games. If you’re unsatisfied with Wright as the sixth man in the rotation, there are still serviceable pitchers out there waiting to be signed. No, I’m not advocating for going out and inking Jake Arrieta, but guys like John Lackey (yes, I know, I don’t like him either) or Jeremy Hellickson are readily available and could hold their own in the six spot of this star-studded rotation.
More Red Sox -- Hanley on the TB12 Method
Doing this would take five to six games off every starter’s plate, making each fresher for the postseason as well as a late-season pennant race with the Yanks. We don’t need an all-star; we just need a decent pitcher who can give us five to six innings every six days. Given the strength of our offense after signing Martinez, this sixth guy really shouldn’t have to be that great.
If Chris Sale is really a team-oriented guy, he should be willing to put aside the pride of leading the MLB in innings and commit to winning in the postseason. And if David Price pitches anything like he showed us in last year’s playoffs, we should do everything we can to protect that supernatural elbow of his. This decision could be the first real test of Alex Cora’s managing career--if he’s got what it takes to succeed as an MLB skipper, he’ll walk into the clubhouse and tell his players that this is the way it’s gonna be, whether they like it or not.
Comments