You can tell Chris Sale isn’t torn up about not being the Opening Day starter.
“I had a funny joke I was gonna say: either trade me or release me. I can’t work in these conditions,” Sale quipped Monday on "The Bradfo Sho" podcast.
Sale, healthy in spring training for the first time since 2019, won’t be Boston’s starter when the Red Sox begin the season March 30th against the Orioles. In many ways, Sale would have been the perfect candidate for the gig. He’s the longest-tenured hurler in the rotation, and if things go according to plan he’ll be the ace this season. It would also be a nice story to see him start the season opener after so much missed time.
But Alex Cora took a different approach. He told Sale a while back that he wouldn’t get the ball for Game 1 so that he could enjoy the Opening Day experience.
Sale concurred.
“He told me a while ago, and honestly, I really appreciate it," Sale said. "He’s right, the last few opening days have been bittersweet for me, I guess. Opening Day is always a magical day, it's Christmas for baseball players. When you don’t get to play, it’s like showing up to Christmas with no toys.
“It still is great, it still is fun, I still enjoy it, I still appreciate it – but I definitely understood why he did that. And I just appreciate that. To be able to soak it all in and enjoy that day as a whole and not have the stress of getting ready for it and all this other stuff. And it’s my birthday.”
You can’t draw up a better vibe than Opening Day. There’s plenty of optimism, the weather is improving and the park is always packed.
It’s the type of energy pitchers relish having around them. Sale is looking forward to experiencing it from a different perspective.
“It’s quite the spectacle. It’s kind of a circus. People everywhere, media everywhere, just the buzz, the city, everything. Which, don’t get me wrong, if he told me I was getting the ball, I was going. I would’ve been fired up for it.
“But again, to be able to soak all that in, to enjoy it, to appreciate it, just take all that in and soak it all in and appreciate it for what it is without having to overlook some of the really fun things about Opening Day by having to get ready for a start, it’s going to be cool. It’ll be fun.”
Cora has not announced who will be getting the ball for the opener, although it looks like it will be Corey Kluber.
For Sale, the decision being made with something other than baseball in mind stood out to him.
“Being the Opening Day starter is a very high honor, and it is a great thing. So I don’t want to take away from that. But at the end of the day, I’ve done it before and he didn’t just pull a name out of a hat. There was a reason he did this, and I respect that more than anything because there was a lot of thought that went into this.
“I appreciated him having my back and thinking of me outside of the realm of baseball. He was thinking of me as a person right there. Which, that’s who AC is, that’s why players love him, that’s why he is who he is. All of that as a whole, I really appreciate that.”
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