Major League Baseball

Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale placed on 60-day IL due to shoulder injury

Published Jun. 9, 2023 6:42 p.m. ET

Chris Sale will be off the mound for the foreseeable future.

The Boston Red Sox lefty was placed on the 60-day injured list Friday. The team also revealed that Sale has a stress reaction in the shoulder blade of his throwing arm. While he won't need surgery, Sale will have to rest and go through rehab before being re-evaluated in three-to-four weeks.

It’s another setback for the seven-time All-Star as he attempts to re-establish himself as a reliable member of the rotation.

Sale was originally placed on the 15-day injured list on June 2 after he left his start a day prior due to the shoulder injury. The exact injury he was dealing with wasn't known at that time.

Sale has dealt with five injuries since the end of the 2019 season that have cost him a number of games. After sitting out roughly the last two months of the 2019 season due to elbow inflammation, Sale had Tommy John surgery ahead of the 2020 season, which kept him out until August 2021.

Sale completed the 2021 season upon his return, but suffered a stress fracture to his ribs while throwing batting practice in Feb. 2022. That kept him out until July, but a line drive hit Sale's pitching hand in his second start back and gave him a fifth-finger fracture. While he was out with that injury, Sale broke his right wrist when he fell off his bicycle in August, forcing him to miss the remainder of the 2022 season.

A day after being pulled from a start in the fourth inning, Sale said doctors weren’t sure what the injury was but that he didn’t expect to need surgery. Acknowledging his past arm problems, he said he had always come back before and will do so again.

"It’s just kind of a gut punch," Sale said Friday. "I hate feeling like this. I started having fun playing baseball again. And now, back to not having fun. That sucks.

"If there’s anything I can prove, it’s [that] you’re not going to keep me down. I’m just going to keep rolling. You knock me down I’m going to get back up."

For the first time in four years, Sale was on the Red Sox' Opening Day active roster to begin the 2023 season. Following a rough start to the season, Sale appeared to regain some of his prime form. The 34-year-old went 3-0 with a 2.42 ERA in four starts in May. He's 5-2 with a 4.58 ERA in 11 starts so far this season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience