OPINION

By Alexa D'Amato

  After Chris Sale was scratched from the Opening Day roster because of a rib cage fracture, fans are starting to wonder if the contract extension was really worth it.

  In 2019, former General Manager Dave Dombrowski offered left hand pitcher Chris Sale a five year extension, with a no trade clause through the 2024 season. Sale took the extension and spent the 2019 and the shortened 2020 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. The path to recovery was long, and Sale finally came back to the team in 2021, where he pitched in 9 games, with a 5-1 record and a 3.16 earned run average.

  Shortly after the delayed Spring Training began, the team announced that right hand pitcher Nathan Eovaldi would most likely get the start on Opening Day, as Sale had a rib cage fracture. Since the extension, Sale has dealt with injury after injury, making his extension seem like a waste of $145,000,000.

  Dombrowski and current General Manager Chaim Bloom signed very different players; Dombrowski would spend excessive amounts of money on big name players, while Bloom spends less money on lesser known players who get the job done. Because of Bloom’s strategy, the well known starting pitchers are from the Dombrowski era and the lesser known players are ones that Bloom signed, there are not many widely known players on the rotation. Sale and Eovaldi are the most known on the rotation, and both were signed by Dombrowski - Sale signed with Boston in 2016, and Eovaldi signed with the team in July of 2018, then signed an extension in December of the same year. 

  Since his extension, many people have wondered how valuable Sale and his extension is to the team. After missing the entirety of the shortened 2020 season, Sale has been inconsistent. He returned in August 2021 against the Baltimore Orioles, where everyone thought the “Old Chris Sale” had returned and was better than ever. Unfortunately, Sale looked too human on the mound.

  During the regular season, Sale threw over 42 innings, giving up 45 hits. His starts were planned so he pitched against teams that had losing records or were skidding, such as the Orioles, the New York Mets, and the Washington Nationals, who were well out of the playoff race by the time the Red Sox played them in their Wild Card hunt at the beginning of October.

  Sale seemed to start off strong, giving up 13 earned runs over 8 games, but by the end of the season and into the postseason, Sale seemed as if he ran out of gas, with an earned run average of over 7 in October and a loss of the Wild Card game start. However, it was expected that he wouldn’t be the Sale that Boston fans remembered from 2018. He needed time to build up to that, and a normal offseason would have provided him with an amount of time in which to do so with a trainer. But, because of the lockout, Sale wasn’t able to communicate with a Red Sox trainer. Players were literally locked out of training facilities owned by teams and injured players weren’t able to rehab with the teams’ athletic trainers.

  His extension seems to look like more of a mistake after every injury. However, if Sale can stay healthy for an extended period of time, he has the potential to go back to the “normal” Sale. His work ethic is unmatched, his intensity on the mound shows his dedication to the team, and his reactions after watching his teammates, even on days he wasn’t playing, prove that.

  The extension will be worth the price, but only if Sale can manage to play for most of the season. He wants to prove that he’s able to come back stronger to fans and haters alike.

  Sale is a valuable member to the team, not only because of his pitching, but also because of his dedication and desire to be as good as humanly possible. Just by being on the team, his presence makes his teammates hold themselves accountable. A prime example of this is during the 2018 World Series, when his team was losing. He paced the dugout, cursing and telling the team to “pick it up” - and they came back to win the game.

  What Sale provides for the team goes beyond pitching, and just by sitting in the dugout during games, you can feel the energy radiating from him. He is invaluable to the team and the history of that proves it. His ability to be a leader in the dugout and on the field proves the value of his extension.