McAdam: Chris Sale can't wait to come back ... imagine how his team feels

The Red Sox held two Zoom calls with the media Thursday in the span of 90 minutes and the juxtaposition couldn't have been more jarring.

On the first, Chris Sale, rehabilitating from Tommy John surgery from the end of March, spoke from the team's spring training headquarters in Fort Myers and detailed the long, arduous process through which he'd been traveling.

On the next, Ron Roenicke, in his daily pre-game media availability, was asked about his team's pitching plans for the upcoming four-game series in Yankee Stadium which starts Friday.

Roenicke said the first game will be a "bullpen game'' for the Red Sox, followed by Nathan Eovaldi on Saturday. Later, he said the Red Sox had a candidate to start Sunday's game, but couldn't announce it yet, indicating it will require a callup from the team's alternate training site. Finally, Martin Perez will pitch the series finale Monday.

The pitching plans were a sober reminder that, on the eve of a four-game series with their biggest rivals, the Red Sox only have two reputable MLB-caliber starting pitchers lined up.



Together, the two sessions could have been combined to represent what's become something of a theme for the 2020 Red Sox. Call it: How the Mighty Have Fallen.

Just two years ago, the Red Sox starting rotation featured Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, Eduardo Rodriguez and Eovaldi, en route to a 108-win season and a dominant showing in the postseason, culminating in a World Series triumph.

Now, 22 months later, all but Eovaldi are gone from the Sox rotation -- Price and Porcello permanently, and Sale and Rodriguez for the remainder of the season.

All of which isn't to suggest that, with the five reunited and healthy, the Red Sox' problems would be instantly eradicated. Those five comprised the Boston rotation at the start of last year, too, when the Sox began 6-13 and didn't reach the .500 mark until almost a quarter of the season. They finished in third place and suffered a 24-game fall-off in wins from the previous season.

Sale himself, before he went down for the season -- ironically, his last appearance for the Sox came a year to the day from Thursday -- fashioned the worst ERA of his career. But other peripheral numbers  (13.9 strikeouts-per-nine innings, a 1.086 ERA) indicated it wasn't a terrible season.

But with veteran, accomplished starters occupying every spot in the rotation, they had a reasonable expectation to complete most nights. That's far from the case this season.

When the Sox start someone other than Eovaldi or Martin Perez, they're 5-3. When they start anyone else -- castoff, opener, prospect - they're a ghastly 1-9. Most times, as Roenicke alluded to, the identity of the starters is unknown 48 hours out. And often inconsequential when you do learn.

In the meantime, Sale plods along, doing some cardio and lightweight work under the hot Florida sun -- the better to comply with health and safety protocols during the pandemic. Sale uses a batting cage as his weight room, training room and locker room. A garden hose serves as his shower.

He's used the time to break down his biomechanics and study other aspects of his delivery. Sale figures something about what he was doing caused additional stress on his elbow, leading to the torn ligament. He's taking advantage of his extra time to perform due diligence. Mostly, he plows ahead, spends time with his family and mentally counts down the time remaining in injury purgatory.

He misses the competition and has no outlet. He can't throw, he can't golf, and only recently was he given permission to play a little basketball. He half-joked that his only form of competition was racing his kids around and inside the house.

Sale said he spends some time watching Red Sox games at home. He said all the proper things about giving time to the young guys auditioning for spots in the rotation, about being patient.

But clearly, this rotation in no way resembles the one he was a part of for the past few years.

He offered no timetable, because for now, that's too far out. Sometimes, he daydreams and allows himself to envision his return.

"Yes, I think about pitching a lot,'' he confessed. "The time that I think about pitching is not what I'm thinking about. I told these guys, 'You're going know. I'm going to pitch, there's going to be a day and you're going to say, 'He's ready to go.' And whenever that day is, that's when we go.''

Sale will be back, probably sometime next May or June. No doubt that seems like an impossibly long time for him.

But if it seems like forever for him, how long do you think it seems for his team, running out unknowns, patching and filling, and for now, mostly failing.