Chris Sale tested positive for Covid-19

Red Sox Chris Sale has tested positive for Covid-19 and will not make his scheduled departure on Sunday, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (via Twitter). He will be placed on the Covid-19 injured list, joining eight other Red Sox players who have tested positive or are in protocol due to the recent team outbreak in Boston.

Major League Baseball’s health and safety protocols for the 2021 season state that Sale will be out of the club for at least 10 days, further straining a rotation that has been heavily impacted by the squad’s outbreak. . The two Nick Pivetta and Martin perez are currently on the Covid-related injured list, which has prompted recent departures of Cutter Crawford and Brad Peacock. Perez has been on IL since August 30 and could be set to return, and the Sox also currently have Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Eovaldi and Tanner Houck in the rotation. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe further reports that it is also possible that Pivetta, who has been in the Covid protocol but has not tested positive himself, could be activated to start the sale on Sunday.

Sale, 32, missed most of the 2021 season as he returned from Tommy John surgery, but has been excellent in five starts since joining the squad. He has yet to pitch beyond the sixth inning, but has a 2.52 ERA with a strikeout rate of 27.5% and a 5.5% strike rate – two pretty strong ratings – when of its first 25 rounds since its activation.

The Red Sox have a pretty tenuous grip on the first-place American League Wild Cards, leading the Yankees by a one-game margin. Three other teams – Toronto, Seattle and Oakland – are within two games of that second-place Wild Card and three games of first-place Boston. The Sox have managed to stay competitive despite an outbreak that has seen 10 players testing positive since late August.

Sale’s positive test comes less than 24 hours after Red Sox right fielder Renfroë Hunter controversially claimed during a WEEI radio appearance with Lou Merloni and Christian Fauria that Major League Baseball told the Red Sox to “stop testing and just treat the symptoms” (Twitter link with audio). When asked in a follow-up to confirm that the MLB had asked the Red Sox to stop testing, Renfroe responded with a simple “Yes.”

Major League Baseball and the Red Sox both moved quickly to rebut the claim. The Boston Globe’s Julian McWilliams and Kate McInerny quoted a league spokesperson as calling Renfroe’s claim “completely false and inaccurate”, while the team released a statement that it “was following protocols MLB COVID-19 throughout the season “. The Red Sox added that they “continued to test and [the league’s] the medical staff were very supportive.

Renfroe did not respond to his comments either, and there has been speculation that he misinterpreted the league’s policy of reducing the frequency of testing for vaccinated and asymptomatic players, which was put in place in June. Under these updated protocols, vaccinated players are not tested for the virus unless they show symptoms or are considered close contact with someone known to have tested positive.