Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale visited with specialist Dr. James Andrews on August 19, with plans to see him again some six weeks later.
As it happens, today was the exact six-week anniversary of that visit. That follow--up visit hasn't happened yet, and Sale remains in "no throw'' mode on orders from Dr. Andrews, after complaining of elbow discomfort and being shut down for the remainder of the season after Aug. 13.
Nevertheless, the Red Sox expressed optimism about Sale's condition and his readiness for next season.
“He’s recovering well,” said assistant GM Brian O’Halloran said. “We’re going to take everything step-by-step with Chris and he has certain checkpoints to meet as we go through the offseason. But as this point, we expect him to be healthy coming into spring training, along with the rest of the rotation we have under control.
"There was a range on when that could begin and we’re taking that a little bit slower than we initially anticipated just to be certain. Once he was totally shut down, we took a close look at his schedule and our medical staff recommended that we take it slowly just to give him as much time as possible to heal before he started throwing. But that will happen sometime in the near future."
Sale was expected to meet with reporters this past weekend, but failed to do so. The same was said of David Price, who last week underwent a procedure in Boston to remove a cyst he had developed in his left wrist, but Price, too, failed to answer questions.
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The team has said for a number of days that it will announce the status of the coaching staff, but has yet to do so.
It's widely assumed that hitting coach Tim Hyers, assistant hitting coach Andy Barkett are regarded as safe, along with pitching coach Dana LeVangie. But other changes could take place, which Alex Cora almost seemed to suggest were coming.
"We're going to meet as a group in the upcoming days,'' Cora said. "Obviously, in every other organization, there's always changes -- and we're talking about from scouting all the way through the manager. I don't know what kind of changes we're going to make or if the whole group is coming (back). We'll address the situation and make decisions accordingly.''
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“We’ve taken a pretty consistent approach to ticket pricing the last four or five years," said team president Sam Kennedy Monday, "with low, single-digit or cost-of-living inflationary increases. We haven’t made a decision this year for 2020. But I would anticipate another modest increase.”
The team boosted the cost of tickets 2.5 percent in each of the last two off-seasons.