Thomas Harrigan
@HarriganMLB

Red Sox ace Chris Sale has a stress fracture in his right rib cage and won’t be ready for Opening Day, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom announced on Wednesday.

This will mark the third straight year that Sale isn’t on Boston’s Opening Day roster. The left-hander underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2020 and didn’t make his return until last August.

He went 5-1 with a 3.16 ERA and 52 strikeouts over 42 2/3 innings for the Red Sox during the regular season and allowed eight earned runs across nine innings in three postseason starts.

Sale also made multiple trips to the IL in 2018 due to left shoulder inflammation and dealt with left elbow inflammation in ‘19, leading Boston shutting him down for the season in August. The last time he threw more than 158 innings in a season was 2017, his first year with the Red Sox after the team acquired him from the White Sox.

One of the best pitchers of his generation, Sale made seven straight All-Star teams from 2012-18 and finished sixth or better in the American League Cy Young Award voting in each of those years.