Chris Sale injury: Red Sox lefty undergoes season-ending wrist surgery following bicycle accident

Sale has barely pitched for the Red Sox in three years due to various injuries

Boston Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale will miss the remainder of the 2022 season after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured right wrist that resulted from a bicycle accident. 

Here is the full statement released by the club on Tuesday: 

On Monday, August 8, Boston Red Sox left-handed pitcher Chris Sale underwent an open reduction and internal fixation of a right distal radius (wrist) fracture. The procedure was performed by Dr. Matthew Leibman at the Newton-Wellesley Outpatient Surgery Center in Wellesley, MA.

Sale suffered his injury during a bicycle accident on Saturday, August 6. He will miss the remainder of the 2022 season but is expected to be ready for the start of Spring Training in 2023. 

Red Sox executive Chaim Bloom provided more details to local media on Tuesday morning:

Bloom said Sale played catch on Saturday at BC, took his bike to get lunch and and hit something going down a hill and flew off the bike.

— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) August 9, 2022

Sale, 33, had already been on the injured list with a fractured finger that he suffered in July during just his second start of the season. Prior to that, Sale had been sidelined with a right rib stress fracture that kept him on the shelf for the first three-plus months of this season. Elbow issues that first cropped up in August of 2019 and eventually required Tommy John surgery cost Sale all of the 2020 season and limited him to just nine starts in 2021. 

Stated another way, Sale since the start of that lost 2020 season has pitched just 48 1/3 innings for Boston in the regular season. Sale still seems capable of pitching at ace-ish level when healthy, but health has obviously been quite elusive in recent years. 

Sale is signed through at least the 2024 season in Boston, and his contract includes a vesting option for 2025. At minimum, he's owed $55 million after this season. 

The Red Sox at this writing qualify as playoff longshots. They enter Tuesday's slate with a 54-56 record, a minus-30 run differential, and last-place status in the American League East. The SportsLine Projection System presently gives Boston a 9.0 percent chance of making the expanded postseason field.