Sale resumes throwing after MRI reveals 'good news'

BOSTON -- Throwing from 60 feet may not seem too exciting, but for left-hander Chris Sale, it was enough to put him in a great mood on Thursday afternoon.

Sale, who was placed on the injured list on June 2 with a stress reaction in his left shoulder blade, underwent a follow-up MRI on Thursday morning which revealed the lefty could resume throwing for the first time in four weeks.

“I know it’s nothing groundbreaking,” Sale said. “But it’s big for me personally just because it’s baseball stuff. I’m a baseball player and showing up to a baseball field to not do anything baseball related … It’s not fun. It takes its toll on you.

“To be able to show up and actually feel like I’m doing something to better myself to hopefully sooner rather than later help this team is good. Throwing is better than not throwing, that’s for damn sure.”

Sale is set to throw again on Saturday, and pick up an every other day program before next steps are taken. The left-hander exited his start against the Reds on June 1 after 3 2/3 innings with left shoulder soreness. He was moved to the 60-day injured list on June 3 after an initial MRI revealed the stress fracture.

Having missed the 2020 season and the first half of ‘21 recovering from Tommy John surgery undergone in ‘20, Sale is no stranger to having to sit around and wait for good news. The lefty was then limited to two starts in ‘22 after he was sidelined by a stress fracture in his right rib cage during Spring Training, a broken left pinkie finger on a comebacker up the middle and a broken right wrist sustained in a bike accident.

“It’s way too early [for a timetable],” manager Alex Cora said. “Think we’ve been through this road before, so I think patience is the constant. We’ve been patient in previous years. He’s been able to post, so we just gotta stay disciplined, be patient and hopefully he can contribute at some point this season.”

The nature of this injury has posed a unique challenge for Sale, in that his shoulder and elbow have mostly felt good. After a lot of “sitting around and waiting,” the lefty now has had to ride the fine line of working toward a return while prioritizing taking things slow so as to not reaggravate the injury.

“First time getting to throw in a long time and obviously the anticipation, the excitement, it’s hard to throttle back,” Sale said. “But at the same time, this is a process. If you’re going to run a marathon you don’t just go out there and run 20 miles on Day 1, you build up to that. I gotta trust the process, kind of respect my body and just go through it.”

Following a slow start to the season, Sale was 4-1 with a 3.07 ERA in his last seven starts before landing on the IL. With the rotation also down Tanner Houck (facial fracture) and Corey Kluber (right shoulder inflammation), Sale has been sorely missed. If all goes according to plan, Sale said he hopes to be ready the first day he is eligible to return, which is Aug. 1.

“Yeah for sure,” Sale said when asked if he thought he’d be able to pick up where he left off. “Maybe not Day 1, pitch one, but I think it’ll be quicker. Weeks is better than months. I’ve had months off the last couple times I’ve come back and that’s always going to be a little trickier.

“... So now that I’m moving my arm I can start doing some dry stuff again and start working on my mechanics and my delivery and stuff like that. So when that time does come, I’m not where I was to start the year, hopefully I pick up where I left off and just kind of keep rolling.”