Royals Won’t Have to Worry About Chris Sale on Opening Day

Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

We’re still about four weeks away from the start of the regular season, but the Royals just caught their first break. White Sox beat reporter Dan Hayes is reporting that Chris Sale will not be able to make the start on Opening Day, when the Royals play host to the Sox on April 6 in Kansas City. Sale broke a bone in his foot while unloading his truck a couple of weeks ago, and is looking to return by April 12.

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Sale is coming off of what was the most impressive season of his career on a per-inning basis. He had a 2.17 ERA, while striking out 10.8 batters per 9 innings and walking just 2 per 9. His ERA- was 55, better than every pitcher in baseball not named Clayton Kershaw.

Sale has always been exceptional. In 2014, he was exceptionally exceptional. The lone mark against him was some missed time due to an elbow problem, causing him to throw only 174 innings. Were it not for that month of missed starts, Sale likely would have taken home the Cy Young award.

That’s what the Royals were looking at facing next month, prior to this injury.

Granted, Jeff Samardzija and Jose Quintana are no slouches themselves, and whichever pitcher is tabbed to take the hill on Opening Day should still present a challenge to the Royals. However, the White Sox lack depth in their rotation, so pushing Shark and Quintana up a day means the Royals will face either John Danks or Hector Noesi in that first series.

Neither of those pitchers are terribly intimidating, regardless of Danks’ nonsensical dominance against the Royals in the past. The Royals will avoid one of the best pitchers in baseball, and in the process, they’ll get an extra game against a back-end starter. I’d say that’s a fair trade.

If his foot injury lingers, the Royals might even miss Sale when they head to Chicago later in April for a four-game series. It may not work out that way, but I’m sure the Royals wouldn’t hate missing another start from the dominant lefty. If you listen closely, you can actually hear Mike Moustakas smiling from here.

This may end up balancing out by the time the season is over, of course, but in what should be a very competitive division, every game will be important. The Royals will take whatever edge they can get, even if that edge arrives on the first day of a 162-game season.

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