Sale won't need surgery, but out until at least early August

The Red Sox revealed on Friday that ace Chris Sale has a stress reaction in his left shoulder blade, which he sustained in his start on June 1 against the Reds.

A couple of hours before manager Alex Cora revealed that news, the Sox moved Sale from the 15- to the 60-day injured list, meaning the soonest he can pitch for Boston again is Aug. 1.

Cora said that Sale won’t need surgery, but he also won’t do any throwing for at least a month.

“We’ve just got to be patient now,” Cora said. “Obviously it’s not perfect, but we know it’s not -- no surgical procedure. That’s huge for us, right? Now we’ve just got to be patient and reassess the situation in four to five weeks and see where we’re at.”

Cora is hopeful Sale will pitch again this season.

“We always have concerns, but the hope is to go to rehab and pitch at one point this season,” Cora said.

The initial diagnosis released by the Red Sox the day after Sale was injured against the Reds was inflammation. But Sale and the club both said it would take a week or so to determine the extent of the injury.

The toughest part of the injury for Sale is that he was starting to pitch like his vintage self again after spending the previous three years mostly injured.

In his last six starts before going on the IL, Sale went 4-0 with a 2.25 ERA.

In that June 1 start, Sale came out of the gate firing, hitting 96 mph in the first inning. But his velocity dipped dramatically in the subsequent innings. Sale wound up pitching 3 2/3 innings that night, and he was taken out of the game after a second medical visit from Cora and a team trainer in the fourth inning.

Sale underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2020 and returned in August of ‘21, making nine starts during the regular season and three in the postseason.

But a series of freak injuries -- a stress fracture in his right rib cage, a broken left pinkie finger and a broken right wrist sustained in a bike accident -- limited him to two starts in 2022.

For the first time since 2019, Sale arrived at this past Spring Training without any health issues.

Now, the Red Sox are back in an all-too-familiar place with the stud pitcher they acquired prior to the ’17 season in a trade with the White Sox.

“We’ve been through this path before, been patient with him,” said Cora. “We’ll do the same thing again, and hopefully he can perform this season again for us.”

Without Sale, Boston’s rotation consists of James Paxton, Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford.

Paxton has been excellent in his return from a recent injury log as extensive as Sale’s. Whitlock, Houck, Bello and Crawford all have good stuff, but they are still developing as pitchers going through a full season in a Major League rotation.