Cardinals Rumors: Should St. Louis consider a Chris Sale trade?

Why Boston would trade Chris Sale

For as much as Cardinals fans want to complain about the lack of spending from ownership (and rightfully so), Red Sox fans have to be losing their minds after losing another star because their front office would not give them an extension.

It started with the Mookie Betts trade a few seasons ago, escalated with Xander Bogaerts leaving for San Diego on a massive contract, and looks to be coming to a breaking point as the club and slugger Rafael Devers appear to be "miles apart" on an extension. It's clear that the Red Sox do not like wrapping up money in aging stars, and if they are about to plummet into a rebuild, moving Sale makes a lot of sense.

Even with Devers and Sale on the roster, the Red Sox are likely the worst team in the American League East, and it is hard to imagine a path toward contention in the next year or two. Boston has a solid farm system and could look to free up payroll moving forward and get an asset in return for their oft-injured ace.

Until the last few years, Sale has been one of, if not the most, reliable pitcher in baseball. He was consistently a top 5 starter in the game, and giving his club 170-220 innings a year. In recent years, he has battled some concerning injuries, but also had bad luck with some extremely weird injuries, including breaking his wrist in a bike accident, breaking his finger on a line drive, and a broken rib while throwing a pitch. Outside of his Tommy John surgery, all of those injuries appear to be flukey things.

Still, Boston has not been able to rely on him as of late, and they will not be contending this year, so why no get some kind of return on their asset and move on? St. Louis would have a greater need for him anyways.