After an initial successful stint with the Boston Red Sox, Chris Sale was traded to the Atlanta Braves due to frustrations with injuries. Sale, who began his MLB career in Chicago with the White Sox, ended up in Boston for the 2017 season. He later played an important role in helping the Red Sox win the 2018 World Series. Nevertheless, Sale doesn’t think his time in Boston was an overall success, something he admitted to on Foul Territory.
Chris Sale’s admittance to the Red Sox
“Not in my opinion. There were a few reasons why Sale’s stint in Boston was not successful, he stated. There was only one season that I was healthy. I spent seven years there.
He continued by saying that the seasons of 2017 and 2018 were good. The “best year of my career from a stats standpoint,” as he put it, was 2017.
Sale had a 2.90 ERA at the end of the 2017 season after 32 games. Then, as was previously said, he pitched in 27 games in 2018, with a 2.11 ERA and assisting Boston in winning the World Series.
After being limited to 25 games pitched in 2019, Sale failed to make more than nine starts in either 2021 or 2022 after missing 2020. Sale’s final season with Boston in 2023 saw the left-hander appear in 20 games.
“You talk about the contract, I didn’t do anything post-contract which bothers me,” Sale continued. “If we would’ve won the World Series after I signed that contract, I would have felt maybe a little bit better. But I got traded there, we win a World Series, they obviously make a big commitment to me and kind of reward me for having two good years and bringing a championship to that city.”They kind of assumed that after those two years, they had signed up for five more years, but that wasn’t the case. Hey, we’re going all in on you, we’ve done our part of the bargain. Here’s a big contract, now you get to go keep doing what you’re doing.”Injuries prevented Chris Sale from continuing his incredible run in Boston after the 2019 season. “Again, the best years of my baseball career were in Boston. But also the worst years of my career were in Boston. If those worst years weren’t, just to be completely honest, so f**king expensive… it’s a gut-punch. It’s not a fun thing that I’ll be able to look back on and remember about my life,” Sale said.
