If you have turned on the television anytime in the last decade, odds are high you've seen a commercial for Allstate Insurance starring Dean Winters as "Mayhem." What we didn't know until August 9, 2022 is that there's a very good chance these commercials were just inspired by all the ways Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale ends up needing surgery.
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Good Hands vs. Broken Pinky Fingers
It was announced by the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday that Dennis Duffy, sorry I mean Chris Sale, would miss the remainder of the 2022 season after the left-hander injured his wrist in a bike accident that would require surgery. But the latest Chris Sale injury is just the tip of the iceberg.
Sale was already on the injured list after suffering a broken left pinky finger on a line drive come-backer during a start at Yankee Stadium. That injury, which happened in his second start after being activated from a different IL stint, required surgery, but the Red Sox were hoping to have their pitcher back by the end of the season.
They didn't have him until July due to the lefty suffering a stress fracture in his eighth rib during the offseason, which forced him to miss the start of spring training. He then set back his recovery from that rib cage injury in May with "non-baseball-related activities."
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
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The Red Sox acquired Sale when he was one of MLB's best pitchers by shipping off prospects Michael Kopech and Yoan Moncada to the American League Central stalwart, the Chicago White Sox. This deal gave the Red Sox a solid ace to compete with their divisional rivals in the Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. In the 2018 postseason, Sale was a workhorse for Alex Cora's rotation, as the AL East champions waltzed through the playoffs to a World Series win against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
All of the 2020 regular season and most of last year were spent on the IL for "The Vulture," wait, I mean "The Condor," after having Tommy John surgery (during the middle of the pandemic, when it could be argued such a medical procedure wasn't exactly necessary).
At the end of 2021, after finally coming back from the Tommy John surgery, he missed the end of the season with COVID-19. All in all, Chris Sale has made a grand total of 11 starts since the Red Sox placed him on the IL with shoulder inflammation on September 1, 2019. Here's hoping the man has some good insurance. Good hands, indeed.
