Chris Sale’s latest reflection on his Red Sox exit is the kind of thing that lands hard in Boston.
The 10-time All-Star is now three years removed from the trade that sent him from the Red Sox to the Atlanta Braves before the 2024 season, and the split has only gotten more painful in hindsight for Boston. Sale has since won the Cy Young Award and earned All-Star nods in each of the three seasons since leaving. Vaughn Grissom, the infielder Boston received in the deal, posted negative WAR with the Red Sox before being moved on to the Los Angeles Angels.
But the part that really stings for Red Sox fans is what Sale said this week in Philadelphia during All-Star Game coverage. On Tuesday’s pregame show, he told David Ortiz and the FOX broadcast crew that he went into what turned out to be his final season in Boston determined to give the team everything he had.
“I told my wife, I told all the guys, I was like, ‘I’m going for it. I’m not going to miss a single day of throwing.
I’m not missing a single workout. I’m doing every rep of every set,’” Sale said.
“I just felt like I owed it to Boston, like hey, I need to give them everything I have because I really felt guilty for those years of not being able to show up and not play. That weighed on me heavy.
“So after the ‘23 season I was like, ‘I’m going to train like I’m 23 years old again. I’m going to launch baseballs. I’m going to lift.’”
Sale’s comments made clear how much the last five seasons in Boston weighed on him, even after he knew what he had done early in his Red Sox run. He said he expected to have the kind of season in Boston that he later put together in Atlanta.
Ortiz tried to put the whole thing in perspective, telling Sale that Red Sox fans would always remember what he helped deliver for the 2018 World Series champions.
“I don’t know if they love me forever,” Sale replied, “but I’ll always love them.”
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