The Red Sox have an opportunity to possibly acquire Chris Sale now that Sale is potentially a market item. Go for it!
The Red Sox now have a schadenfreude opportunity with Chris Sale having practiced his tailoring skills, or lack of, on assorted uniforms prior to a Chicago White Sox game. Schadenfreude is a German phrase for taking pleasure in the misfortune of others, but in this instance, it is taking advantage (hopefully) of the misfortune of others – namely the other Sox in the baseball drawer.
Is Sale worth the effort?
The “numbers” are impressive, and as we know baseball is all about numbers, as Sale is one of the statistically most productive of pitchers in the majors. Unquestionably a talent that is worth investigating. For the numerical traditionalist, Sale is leading the league in wins and that is exactly the idea behind a starting pitcher – to put your team in a position for victory.
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Looking for some glimmer of negative on the statistical chart I could see a decrease in Sale’s K/9 this season when compared to other years. The now 27-year-old lefty has seen his fastball tick down in velocity a shade to a still impressive 93.0 MPH – the lowest since 2012. Is this some type of yellow tape warning? I am sure there may quite possibly be some further metrics that may demonstrate a decline, but my eyes glazed over and stopped my search before my head exploded.
What I do absolutely know beyond any reasonable doubt is this is one damn good pitcher with a team friendly contract who also happens to have some “issues” in regards to his dealings with management. The latest conflagration was not his first brush with management and there seems to be a pattern developing. Is Sale just an anti-authoritarian? Is he a candidate for a warehouse of Zoloft? A pitching prima donna?
Pitchers have a very fragile psyche and throughout baseball history bizarre occurrences – usually self-induced – seem to flow around those that happen to become stars. Rarely do you ever hear about the last guy on the bullpen bench and that is usually because no one cares?
From what I have managed to gather on Sale’s history vis-a-vis teammates is he apparently is a solid citizen, but teammates do have a way of sanitizing the internal until the miscreant is tossed to another team. Of course, my industrious research was based on the magic of Google and who knows what lurks in the locker room?
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The Red Sox – like most teams – have the occasional square pitching peg that gives credence to the proposition that good arms do not necessarily come with stable minds. Are the behaviors of Sale enough to close the door on the opportunity? I would certainly say – “No!” but would also have to consider cost.
The Red Sox do have one chip that just came through the door and could certainly be part of a baseball “Flip Trade” where you arrive, unpack your bags, put a down payment on an apartment, move the family and then get traded again. That chip is Drew Pomeranz, who is also a lefty, under contract control and has an excellent performance record except for that one unfortunate step last Wednesday.
The White Sox would certainly want more and that is the idea behind negotiations. Those willing to deal with Chicago will invariably mention that they are taking on great risk since at any time Sale could go off on another tangent.
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The Red Sox do have other enticements and that means prospects and I doubt that means our future hopes – Andrew Benintendi and Yoan Moncada, but others do exist and Dave Dombrowski certainly had no aversion to cleaning out the prospect closet when the opportunity arises. The simple fact is this is an opportunity that needs to be examined and if there is a chance it is a chance worth taking.
Sources: FanGraphs/Baseball-Reference/MLB TradeRumors