Chris Sale Injury: Red Sox Star Pitcher Breaks Wrist Riding Bike – Will Miss the Rest of the Season

What a day for sports news and a very sad one for the Boston Red Sox faithful. It is being reported that Chris Sale, star left handed pitcher for the Red Sox, broke his hand while riding his bike on Saturday, August 6.

The surgery required surgery and, ultimately, ended his season. This is not the first time Sale has had to stop pitching because of injuries. In fact, he has only made 11 starts for the Red Sox since he signed a $145 million contract extension in March of 2019.

Since signing the contract he has dealt with elbow inflammation that eventually required Tommy John surgery, a stress reaction in his rib cage, and a fractured pinkie from a come back line drive earlier this season. He has pitched a total of 48 1/3 innings.

When healthy, Sale is a force to be reckoned with, accumulating many All-Star Game appearances as well as a plethora of top 6 Cy-Young finishes. Sale got his start with the Chicago White Sox as a flame throwing, high tempered, competitive pitcher. In 2016 he was traded from the White Sox to the Red Sox in return for a treasure trove of young assets including now star Yoan Moncada. Perhaps the highlight of Sale’s career would be when he took down Justin Turner, Enrique Hernandez, and Manny Machado to cement Boston’s 2018 World Series Championship.

After 2018, though, it was all downhill from there. It would culminate in todays breaking news of his fractured wrist ending his season after just 5 2/3 major league innings pitched. On the brighter side for the Red Sox, they have played most of the season without Chris Sale so this shouldn’t affect their day to day play going forward.

The future for the Red Sox, though, could be in question. It’s almost a guarantee Boston didn’t ink an ace pitcher to a contract extension expecting for him to barely pitch for them. To make things worse, as of writing, Chris Sale and Nick Pivetta are the only pitchers the Red Sox can guarantee will be back for the team next year.

With a healthy Chris Sale headlining the duo, Boston would have been in an excellent position to make additions via trade or signing in the off-season. Now, though, they stare down the barrel of another uncertain season for Chris Sale. It is expected that Sale will be ready to go for spring training. I’m sure the Red Sox faithful are anxiously holding their collective breath that he is.