Red Sox Notebook: Chris Sale rejoins the team, ‘trending up’ in recovery from Tommy John surgery

With almost 15 months of recovery in the books, Chris Sale returned to Fenway Park on Monday and will continue his rehab from Tommy John surgery with his teammates.

Sale has been stationed in Florida for the majority of his time since the surgery last March. The recovery has been known to wear down players mentally, and teams often try to give them a break by reuniting injured pitchers with their teammates as they get closer to a rehab assignment.

Sale is still throwing off a mound but has not yet faced any live batters, though he might do that while he’s in Boston, manager Alex Cora said.

“He might travel with us too,” Cora said. “He’s throwing a bullpen today. I actually talked to him a little bit earlier. He is in a great place; he feels great, he’s excited for what happened this weekend (when the Red Sox swept the Yankees). He’s obviously excited about where we are (in second place). The way he put it is like, ‘Man when I come back, what am I gonna do?’ Because we’re throwing the ball well. I said, ‘you don’t have to worry about that. Just get healthy, be ready,’ and I know he’s going to contribute.”

It still seems unlikely Sale will be back before the All-Star break in mid-July. He’s had a few bumps in the recovery process, but now that he’s now throwing sliders off a mound for the first time since surgery, there’s more optimism that he’s getting closer.

“He threw three sliders, and they were very similar to the ones Eduardo (Rodriguez) was throwing in ’19,” Cora said, referring to Rodriguez’s infamously ineffective slider that Sale helped teach him. “So yeah, he’s still got that sense of humor.”

Cora said Sale is “one of the leaders on our team” and his recovery is ‘trending up.’ The Red Sox hope having him around this week will give the team a morale boost.

“The change of scenery always helps,” Cora said. “Although he’s been at home with the family and he likes that. He likes to be a big-leaguer.”

Throwing darts at the lineup

Cora continues to cycle through leadoff hitters and still hasn’t found one that works.

Christian Arroyo got the start at second base while hitting out of the leadoff spot on Monday against the Marlins.

Asked how he decides who he wants to lead off, the manager said there’s no rhyme or reason to it, he just picks someone he feels like might have a good game.

“The information department, there’s no numbers, there’s nothing,” Cora said. “We’re just like, ‘you know what, hopefully he goes there and he does his job.’ There’s other guys that are scuffling right now, they’re trying to find their swings, we’ve just gotta find somebody that goes up there and puts good at-bats and sets the table. Or hits a home run.”

Cora has used just about everybody other than Hunter Renfroe and his big-four hitters (Alex Verdugo, J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers) out of the leadoff spot this year.

Asked if he’d use Renfroe at leadoff because of how hot he’s been, Cora said no.

“Because then we have a struggling guy hitting behind Raffy, so what are we going to accomplish?” he said. “It’s not about protection, but you saw what happened in Houston. They’re going to attack him in certain ways. He’s going to get pitches to hit and then the pressure is going to be, who is going to protect Raffy?

“It’s not as easy as you guys are portraying this. Put this guy here and this guy there. I do believe that protection is very important and the way he’s swinging the bat and the way he’s going about his at-bats is very important to keep him behind Raffy.”

If Cora’s lineup is so thin that he can’t find a leadoff hitter and has nobody other than Renfroe to protect Devers, why not call up Jarren Duran from Triple-A Worcester?

“Obviously the conversations will always be there,” Cora said. “He just had a great tournament down there in Florida. This is a guy that’s going to impact this team in the future, and the future doesn’t mean tomorrow or a month, maybe next year or two years. But we know he’s a good player. The way he impacts the game, offensively, running the bases is eye-opening.

“We know that he still has some things that he needs to get better. But we keep talking about him and we’re very happy with where he’s at right now. Now he has to go back and play and keep getting better, but obviously like Chaim (Bloom) said in spring training, I think it’s something that we’re going to keep paying attention to him and we’ll see what happens in the future.”

Back on track

Marwin Gonzalez broke out of an extended slump with four extra-base hits in the Yankees series and Cora put him in the lineup for a fourth straight game on Monday.

“I do believe that he was getting close,” Cora said. “He hit a few balls hard in Houston to center field. He’s been able to catch up with the fastball and you can see it…

“But we need him to get going from the left hand side and he’s putting better at bats. Obviously this is something that we always talk about, when yeah the process is good you’re going to see the results. Stick with the process. Stick with the process. But when you see results you feel a lot better.”

Martinez was held out again due to wrist soreness but the Red Sox are hopeful he’ll return on Tuesday.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3pwn22I