FORT MYERS, Fla. -- For the second day in a row, the Red Sox on Saturday publicly conceded that a key player might not be available for Opening Day on March 26.
On Friday, it was outfielder Alex Verdugo, thanks to what was revealed Saturday to be an L-5 stress fracture in his back.
On Saturday, interim manager Ron Roenicke acknowledged he couldn't guarantee Chris Sale would be ready, either. Fortunately for the Red Sox, that's less about Sale's balky elbow, which curtailed the final two months of last season, and more about the flu and mild pneumonia which has been an issue the past 10 days.
Sale was checked out by the team's medical and training staff Friday afternoon and cleared to begin baseball activity. But having lost some strength in the last little while, he needs more time to ramp back up, which could result in him being a little behind when the regular season gets underway.
"He still doesn't have full strength back,'' said Roenicke. "He played catch today, stretched it out. He also did that (Friday). I think he's progressing along fine. I think we're going to go a little easy with him, try to keep him out of the fundamentals now and (keep him) more inside with the training staff to try to get his cardio where it (should be). The good thing is, baseball-wise, all that's good. It's just a matter of him getting strong again.
"Obviously he's huge for our starting rotation and he's one of the best pitchers in the game. It would be silly to try to push him and make him come back sooner than he should physically. It's not worth taking a risk on having him on Opening Day exactly, where we're pushing him (to go). He's important for us during the season and, hopefully, we get into the playoffs and keep him strong there. But to push anybody nowadays doesn't make a whole lot of sense to any of us.
"I think we'll re-evaluate him every week and see where he is and see how we far can we continue to progress. ... If we think it's important for him to get a certain amount of starts (in spring training) to build him up to a certain point, that's what we'll do. And if it means that he's not there for Opening Day, then he's not there for Opening Day.''
Meanwhile, there's little concern over the strength and condition of his left elbow, though the Sox will continue to monitor that.
"I think anytime there's any injury, you're pretty silly if you don't stay on top of it, and you try to make sure that doesn't come back,'' said Roenicke. "This guy's huge for us, not just this year but through his contract. To have him as your No. 1 versus pushing him and having him be a No. 3 or No. 4, we don't want that to happen.''
__________________________
_________________________