Chris Sale is close to coming back to the major leagues. Chaim Bloom said as much when appearing on the Greg Hill Show Thursday morning.
But that doesn't mean the Red Sox' Chief Baseball Officer is viewing the return of the lefty has the be-all, end-all when it comes to adding at the trade deadline. In fact, according to Bloom it is just the opposite.
"It's definitely something you have to factor in just like any time you're looking at potential deals," the Red Sox' chief decision-maker said on WEEI. "You look at the team and the players that you have. And he's really close to being part of that. But at the same time, whoever we come out of this deadline with that's who we're going to have the rest of the way, whether it's at the big league level or depth for us in Triple-A. It's not just enough to say, 'Hey, we have 26 guys that we like, let's go.' We need to make sure that we still have enough to withstand the bumps and bruises that are likely to come in some form or another. He's part of the picture, obviously, and we need to factor that in and we need to consider him. But I don't think that just because he's coming back we sit there with our arms folded and say we're good."
But while the wheels are still spinning as the Red Sox head toward the July 31 deadline -- with the addition of a pitcher a very real possibility -- Bloom couldn't hide his optimism regarding the addition of Sale in the coming weeks.
Sale is coming off a very encouraging minor-league rehab outing in Portland, pitching 3 2/3 hitless innings while striking out six. He now will take the next step Sunday, making another appearance at Hadlock Field.
And although Bloom wouldn't offer any definitive timeline for Sale's return, it would seem an early August target seems realistic if all keeps going as planned.
"He's really close now," Bloom said. "We do need to make sure that we don't cut corners at the very final stages of this process after coming all this way. We've seen around baseball sometimes the dangers that can happen there. If it was up to Chris, he would have been out there two weeks ago. You guys know that. But we want to make sure we do this right, that he has enough of a base under him. Not just to make sure we're not putting too much pressure on the bullpen, but also the first time he takes the mound in a big league game that's going to be a spike in adrenaline, that's going to be a spike in effort, as it should be. If you try to do that too soon you almost always end up regretting it. So there are still a couple of steps here to take. But we're getting really close. You saw he pitched into the fourth inning, was dominant. Looked great. So we just have to make sure we aren't cutting corners at the final stages and it won't be too long now if things keep going the way that they have been.
"We talked internally and kind of loosely mapped something out (for a return date). A lot of that is feedback from Chris and where he's at. We have to take that with a grain of salt because Chris is such a competitor. Like I said, he would have been out there by now if it was entirety up to him. But his feedback does matter. This something that has to be done with the player. This is something I don't want to put a firm timetable on it right now speaking here this morning because we have talked about it, but we need to see how he responds. But we don't need him to be able to go nine the first time he starts a big league game. We do want more under him that he has gotten him so far, but he doesn't have to go the distance to be ready for his and go out there and help us win."