Kenny Williams told reporters over the GM meetings that Chris Sale will be a part of the rotation come 2012. The lanky left-hander who appeared in just eleven games in the minors before his call-up to the big leagues has never started a game, yet Kenny has faith in him.
Sale gave us moments when we wanted to punch a wall but for the most part he was a good pitcher last year. A 2.79 ERA in 58 games, 79 strikeouts against 27 walks, and a record of two wins and two losses is pretty good. To go along with all of that he also logged eight saves during the stretch when Sergio Santos was inconsistent.
Could we be witnessing the second coming of Randy Johnson? Quite possibly. Sale’s motion and explosive fastball, combined with good breaking pitches, reminds a lot of people of The Unit. It will be interesting to watch Sale make the adjustment. To be honest I’d rather have him as the closer but with Mark Buehrle‘s status still up in the air we need to start looking at other guys who can hop into the rotation.
With Sale, our rotation looks like this
1 – Jake Peavy
2 – John Danks
3 – Gavin Floyd
4 – Zach Stewart
5 – Chris Sale
Obviously that isn’t the order they’d go but those are our five starters. Kenny Williams has also hinted that he’s willing to shop Floyd and Danks. Should that happen we would have two more rotation spots open and one would assume the Sox would search the free agent market for someone affordable – an Erik Bedard type.
Jon Garland and Freddy Garcia are free agents. So are Willie Harris and Ross Gload. I say we hunt down Carl Everett, recreate the 2005 team, and go for it all.
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