Despite helping the team win a World Series Championship in 2018, as well as being one of the fiercest competitors to ever take the mound for the Boston Red Sox, overall Chris Sale doesn’t view his Red Sox career as a success. Though Sale’s harsh self-assessment can certainly be attributed to his aforementioned competitive nature, the 34-year-old left hander (who was recently traded in a deal to the Atlanta Braves) shared his thoughts on his both his career as a Red Sox player and how he viewed his overall tenure in Boston on a recent episode of the “Foul Territory” podcast.
“In my mind, no, it wasn’t,” Sale said in regards to whether or not his career as a Red Sox player was a successful one. “I only had one full healthy season there. I was there for seven years. I only pitched tip-to-tip one time, in 2017, and that was actually the best year of my career from like a stat standpoint — 2018 was probably close to, if not, the second best year of my career. I missed some time, but had a great year, and we did end up winning the World Series.”
Sale explains that although the Red Sox did win the World Series in 2018, he himself didn’t do much after the World Series win which substantiated his high-paying contract.
“I didn’t do anything post-contract, which bothers me,” he continued. “If we would have won the World Series after I signed that contract, I’d have felt maybe a little bit better. But I got traded there, we won a World Series and they obviously made a big commitment to me and rewarded me for having two good years and bringing a championship to that city. ‘Hey, we’re going all in on you. We’ve done our end of the bargain. Here’s five years. Here’s a big contract. Now you get to go keep doing what you’re doing.’ Because they saw those two previous years and that’s what they thought they had signed up for five more years. And it wasn’t.
“The best years of my baseball career were in Boston, but also the worst years of my career were in Boston. And if those worst years weren’t, just to be completely honest, so (expletive) expensive… It’s a kick, 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 and my career. But I learned a lot from it. I’d like to think you can take some good with bad and roll with the punches. It’s a mixed bag, but overall, I guess in short answer, if it was one word, I would say no.”
While Sale doesn’t view his Red Sox career as a success overall, the 2017 season, which he cited in the interview as being his best, was a highly impressive one. In that season, Sale had 17 wins and 8 losses. He had a 2.90 ERA in 30 games and a total of 214 innings pitched, along with 308 strikeouts and only 43 walks.
What do you think of the fact that Chris Sale doesn’t view his Red Sox career as a success? Do you think his career with the BoSox was a success or was dampered by injuries? Let us know in the comments.
