Emergency Pod: Braves Lose Chris Sale Indefinitely To Ribcage Fracture

00:00:06
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Hammer Territory Podcast. It is somewhat of an emergency show, and as we have said for a while now, we don't like doing emergency shows before like the trade deadline time, because it is usually not good. If folks have not heard the news, it is not good. Chris Sale has a fractured left ribcage and it's gonna be a while. It seems like before. Chris Sale is back with the Atlanta Braves. I am joined today by Stephen Tolbert, and I mean, Stephen, let's just jump right in here. Immediate short term impact for the Atlanta Braves. We are recording this just for housekeeping notes about two thirty Eastern time on Saturday, so maybe we'll get some more information. But on the surface, this does not look good at all for the Braves.

00:00:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's up, buddy?

00:00:58
Speaker 3: I mean this, Chris Sale has been the best player on the team since the day he got here, basically, I mean a lot of us because Ronald was out and I understand so Torontald's been back, He's probably got a case for it. But on the whole, Chris Sale has been the best player on the team. Since the day he got here. And that's what they just lost. The starting pitching has been the most consistent part.

00:01:19
Speaker 2: Of this team by far.

00:01:21
Speaker 3: The offense and the bullpen have been kind of the reasons for the bad play at times. The starters have been unbelievable, and Chris Sale has been, you know, the number one reason for that. And I mean, they just lost their ace. And I understand Stryder has looked better, Schwellenbach has looked really good. You know, they probably still have two really good pitchers at the front of this rotation. But Chris still had a I mean, there was a decent shot he was gonna win a Cy Young for the second year in a row.

00:01:47
Speaker 2: That's how good he's been. And now he's out for It's still too early.

00:01:52
Speaker 3: We're recording this about an hour after the news drop, so we don't know exactly how long he's been out he'll be out, but the preliminary stuff is not good. It could be one, two months, it could be you know, August before we see him again. So yeah, this is devastating news.

00:02:06
Speaker 1: It is, indeed, and we shall see what, if anything. Brian Snitker says this weekend, I mean Honestly, rib cages and injuries to ribcages can be pretty tricky, and not only do you have to recover, but there's a pain tolerance that comes with it too. I wanted to just mention while we're talking timelines. So it's a few years old now, but the National Library of Medicine did a study on major league and minor league players who have suffered fractured ribcage injuries, and on average, players miss about forty seven forty eight days. But the study did show that pitchers tend to be on the longer end of that, so of course every case is unique. We'll see what happens with Sale again, we'll catch it. We are waiting for a little more information. But even if it's average for who is not a young man at this point in his mid thirties, you know, we're talking at bare minimum six seven weeks, and it could be as long as two months.

00:03:09
Speaker 2: Quite honestly.

00:03:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I did see dB did confirm that it happened on the play in the ninth inning where he dove for the ball. I think it was one Soto he dove for that ball threw him out at first. I mean, that's just another kick to the nuts because it was the ninth inning of a five to nothing game. And you know, he's he's such a psychopath competitor, like he's just if he can get to a ball, that's what he's gonna do.

00:03:37
Speaker 2: He's gonna literally dive off the mountain to get to it.

00:03:40
Speaker 3: You would love to be like Chris, it's five to nothing, buddy, we need you, But you can't tell somebody that competitive not to do that.

00:03:46
Speaker 2: And it's just kind of a freak thing.

00:03:47
Speaker 3: And unfortunately for Chris, you know a lot of his injuries throughout his career have been these type of injuries where it's just like some random freak accident. It's not been a lot of like consistent arm or elbow or shoulder.

00:04:00
Speaker 2: Always these freak things that catch him.

00:04:01
Speaker 3: And last year was the back that popped up literally right before the playoffs. This year it's you know, he dove off the mound and broke a rib. So yeah, in that timeline, listen, if it's forty, if it's you know, fifty days, I mean that's you know, there's a good chance the Brave season might be over by the time he gets back. So it's not a guaranteed thing. We're we're not ready to just you know, call it now, but this is a massive blow.

00:04:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is. And let's just kind of now take stock of the Braves rotation, which is of course already without Rinaldo Lopez and already without a J. Smith Schaffer. Now you lose sale for some period of time. So now it's Spencer, Schwellenbach, Spencer Strider, Grand Holmes, Bryce Elder and presumably Diddy or Frontes. I think, I mean, maybe you feel differently, Stephen, but I think what seemed like it was going to maybe be a one game audition at least on the outside, or just a one game to kind of give everybody in their rotation a breather. It seems like Diddy or Fuentes is probably now your fifth starter, unless they want to roll with like Austin Cox and some bullpen games or something.

00:05:11
Speaker 2: We'll see.

00:05:11
Speaker 1: But I mean that, regardless of Diddy or being in there, a top four of Schwellenbach, Streider, Holmes, an Elder, Oh boy, I mean for a team that is already trying to climb out of this hole, this very deep hole, that is pretty scary. If we're being blunt.

00:05:28
Speaker 3: Well, and I think it does answer the kind of the mystery of why they called up Flints.

00:05:33
Speaker 2: You know, it was kind of a weird.

00:05:34
Speaker 3: It's kind of a weird thing to do when somebody literally just got to triple a somebody that young. It seemed like it was just going to be one start, which typically you don't call up one of your best prospects for one start. You usually call up a journeyman guy or do some sort of you know, modified bullpen game or something like that.

00:05:50
Speaker 2: And I think we know now that the Braves had an inkling. You know. Obviously Chris did that on.

00:05:56
Speaker 1: What was that Wednesday, Yeah, Wednesday.

00:05:59
Speaker 3: So they would have known by Friday. That's at least something was up. So I think we have the answer to the mystery of life. Wintes was called up to begin with, Like you just said, he wasn't immediately sent back down after the game, which is also a bit unusual.

00:06:13
Speaker 2: You know, I guess it.

00:06:15
Speaker 3: You know, we we probably could have connected the dots a little bit that somebody was hurt, but nobody saw Chris Sale broken rib out for maybe two months coming. But yeah, I mean that's gonna be the five and my guess is Alex is already looking at you know, trades other teams starters, but it's still kind of early for that quite honestly. You know, trades don't typically happen till the second half of July, and we're still, you know, second half of June.

00:06:39
Speaker 2: So those are the five right now.

00:06:40
Speaker 3: And I really hope these improvements Spencer Strider has made over the last couple of starts.

00:06:46
Speaker 2: I really hope those.

00:06:47
Speaker 3: Stick, because my god, do they need like old school Spencer Strider now more than ever?

00:06:53
Speaker 2: Yeah? They do.

00:06:55
Speaker 1: And I mean even Grant Holmes, I mean, a player who he thought was gonna be maybe the fifth starter this year and then might transition to a bullpen roll at some point if everything went well. Well obviously not everything went well, and then you lose Lopez and Smith Shavor. I mean, it is shocking in Major League Baseball how you can feel good about your starting pitching depth maybe coming into a season or even a couple of weeks or months into a year, and then you blink and all of a sudden, you're tapping into a kid who was a teenager up until four days ago, to presumably make starts every fifth day. Bryce Elder, even though he has been better, is realistically more of a sixth or seventh starter in an organization. Holmes has been fine, but you know, you said Schreider and Schwellenbach. I mean those two have to just be awesome moving forward if this team has any chance of just kind of bridging the gap to staying competitive this summer.

00:07:51
Speaker 2: And again, don't.

00:07:52
Speaker 3: Be surprised if Alex goes out and at least gets like a you know, somewhat of a journeyman starter type. I really don't know how much you can depend on a nineteen. I mean literally, Fuinte has just turned twenty, like a week ago. I don't know how much you can actually depend on this kid to come up and just perform at this line. I mean, that's that's incredibly unfair to ask. I would not be surprised at all if, like tomorrow or even today, Alex trades for at least a body, Maybe somebody's having a rough year that they're kind of you know, is cheap and they they're hoping for a bounce back or something.

00:08:28
Speaker 2: Just another body.

00:08:29
Speaker 3: Because I I'm not a prospect guy. I don't think there's anybody else in Triple A that's even like no decent So I would not a trade of some sort would not shock me.

00:08:41
Speaker 1: Well, and it's interesting now, I think about that interview that Alex and Thoppolz did with local radio four or five days ago, and one he defiantly said the team was not going to sell players with control. Now, maybe this sale injury will have a little bit of an impact on that, and he did kind of leave the door open, as we talked about on the show that if you are a player on an expiring contract and the Braves are just out of it, maybe there's something. But it was interesting that Alex said on the radio that day that he was almost wanting to make a trade just to prove to people that the team was not going to sell. So maybe he has been working and has some players on his office whiteboard of players who could be available. The Braves also did recoup a little bit of unexpected money with Jerks and Profar getting suspended and half of his salary going away, So I don't know. I mean, I think I think you're spot on that it would not shock me. At some point in the near future. It is not going to be anyone good, I would guess it's probably going to be kind of like Rafael Montero, who is a body who is probably better than what you have in Gwenet right now, but could at least make a start for you every fifth day and not just like wave the white flag. Because I do agree, even though Diddy or Fuentez has a bright future, asking him to go out there every fifth day against teams far better than the Morelands feels. I mean, you're asking the world of that kid.

00:10:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, and like it literally might be somebody like Charlie Morton, who's been terrible with Baltimore and the Baltimore's you know, done so they would give him away an art beat. I'm not saying it's gonna be, but like, would that surprise you at all? If the Braves announced tomorrow they traded for Charlie Morton, they wouldn't shock me. But it's gonna be somebody probably on that level. So I would set expectations wisely for that. But yeah, and the thing that sucks for Alex is he was already having to look at Bullpen and probably some sort of offensive help. I mean, as unconsistent as the offense has been, he was probably looking you know, I know, Profar is coming back, and Profar has looked incredible and Triple A and his couple of rehab starts. But you know, for a fact, he was definitely looking for bullpen help. He was probably looking for offensive help, and now he's got to look for starting help. You know, at some point it's too many holes to plug. So yeah, I'm very curious to see how they react to this.

00:10:59
Speaker 1: So this is going to be a shorter show from our usual standard. But I guess just final thoughts, Steven, I mean, obviously, short term, this is crushing for the Braves. There is no sugarcoating this. Sale is probably a top three pitcher in the game right now and has been since the start of twenty twenty four. I don't want to say that the season is officially done today because there is ways to kind of bridge the gap, but Dear God, for a team that had finally started playing better coming off the sweep of the Mets. I know they had the letdown on Friday night, but whatever those are going to happen. You beat the Brewers two out of three, you take the series against the Rockies, it felt like the vibe was finally progressing. The teams ahead of them in the National League Wild Card have also cooled considerably. The Padres are struggling. The Cardinals have calmed down a bit, Like it wasn't if they were fifteen games back in the season, was like mathematically over the man alive. I mean, losing Sale for we'll say one to two months seems to be the estimation. It really really puts this team in a tough place.

00:12:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, and listen, this doesn't matter, but it is worth pointing out.

00:12:12
Speaker 2: Sale was also like their lock all Star pick.

00:12:17
Speaker 3: Now he's not gonna be an All Star so like and you have to have one representative, so like, like Acunya might just be on the team now, just even though he deserves to be on the team with the way he's played, it just might be a lock now because you have to have one. But yes, so Sales is not gonna be on the All Star team, which sucks.

00:12:32
Speaker 2: He was a lock for that.

00:12:34
Speaker 3: I think he was probably one of the front runners for Cy Young. He's gonna you know, this is gonna cost him that you can't miss this much time and win an award like.

00:12:41
Speaker 2: That, And yeah for the team, like.

00:12:46
Speaker 3: I'm very like, when when when Akunya tour was acl on twenty one and the team was, you know, struggling. He immediately traded for Jock Peterson like the next day, and he said he did that intentionally to make sure people know, like we're not done, we're not giving it up. And like you were just talking about earlier, he had already mentioned kind of having that mindset. So like, I'm very curious how this how the front office reacts in the next twenty four hours forty eight hours, if they go hyper aggressive to try to bring some life back in that clubhouse, that clubhouse has to be just devastated. Like not only is Chris the best, probably one of the best players on the team, Like he's like a beloved teammate, Like everybody speaks so incredibly highly of Chris. He's one of the most important veterans on the team. Like it's just a massive blow all the way around your organization. And so I'm very curiously how Alex responds, how the front office responds if they do like a Jock Peterson type thing where they immediately go and.

00:13:38
Speaker 2: Try to get somebody to ease the blow.

00:13:42
Speaker 3: I don't know, this sucks. I mean, a season that has already sucked.

00:13:45
Speaker 2: This sucks. And I said it the other day.

00:13:48
Speaker 3: I tune in, you know, when the Braids were playing badly, I said, I tune in for two reasons, to watch Chris Sale and to watch Ronald Conue junior. And damn, we don't even have Chris Sale to watch anymore. Mean, it's just that it's just been of course, of course that's what happens.

00:14:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, it lose Chris so yes, when it rains, it pours, and goodness, yeah, not the news. I mean, this was I think we had said on the show in the past. And this is a little captain obvious, but if there was one thing this baseball team could not afford, it was to lose one of their top starting pitchers. Like, the offense has problems, but at least you can kind of cover that up. And it's easier to trade for an outfielder than it is to trade for a starting pitcher of any kind of impact. Because guess what, especially with the expanded playoffs, seventy percent of the league thinks they have a chance at the postseason and five of the obvious sellers, I mean, the Rockies don't exactly have a lot of starting pitchers. They could trade that are gonna help or the White Sox or the Marlins. Right like this is in general, it's tough to add starting pitching.

00:14:50
Speaker 2: It's the thing.

00:14:51
Speaker 3: It's the most expensive thing to buy at the deadline is impact starting pitching. Never never, never mind a cy Young caliber pitcher. That's not even right possible with the Braves farm system. Just any sort of impact pitching is far away the most expensive thing by the deadline.

00:15:07
Speaker 1: And frankly there's probably a conversation happening in the bravesfront office how much do you put into this season? Now? If you can get a starter with control, then sure like someone who's going to make an impact in twenty six, maybe twenty seven beyond. Of course, then you obviously you're thinking about more than just this season. But if I had a guess, I mean, I kind of think your Charlie Morton idea is spot on because it would only cost money. It's not going to give prospects. It's it's kind of similar to what they did last trade deadline when they traded for Solaer. It was purely a money thing. They didn't really give up any kind of prospect and that probably made sense given all the injuries. Why give up one of the few prospects who have a real potential and ceiling if you are already kind of drawing dead in a season with injuries in an uphill climb.

00:15:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then yeah, that's one hundred percent fair. Like they might look at this and be like, listen, guys, it's just not our year. Alex will never say that publicly until after the trade deadline, when they've when they've traded Marcelo Zuna and they can't avoid it anymore. But like, he's not gonna say that, but if you see the team not really do much, that's kind of an indication that they might be like, listen, there's just too many there's too much to fill in here. We don't have enough prospects to go around make all these trades. It was different in twenty one because outfielders, like you just said, are so cheap. You can just rebuild your outfield on the cheap and really not give up anybody that you've ever heard of from your farm system. It's it's different when you when you got also bullpen troll troubles and rotation troubles, Like it's very possible you're one hundred percent right, it's very possible they look at this thing and just like it's you know, it's not our year.

00:16:47
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:16:48
Speaker 1: So it is the third weekend in June. I guess there is maybe a month before the Braves have to make some final decisions. As we have outlined on this podcast, there in the middle of a very very important stretch this week and next. So far, Chris Saale injury aside, it's gone well. If you would have told us on Sunday night after that Rocky series that they were gonna go three and one against the Mets and the Marlins, think ticket right, I mean it was so we will see, Steven. We're gonna get out of here on a brief emergency edition of the show. We prefer to do emergency episodes that are fun and exciting and adding to the roster. We're not doing that today. But any final thoughts from you, sir before we get out of here.

00:17:32
Speaker 3: No, I feel bad for Chris, Like the dude had really found his form again, like cy Young level Hall of Fame level pitcher, and he just catches another freak injury. Like he's from every account he's like an awesome dude. Like he's just like an a one person, and like, I really I hate it for the team. Obviously we cover the team, but like I probably actually hate it more for the individual because I think he has got a really good chance of winning his second sy Young like potentially locking in a Hall of Fame career, Like you know, he's kind of right on that edge, like right on the border of like no doubt hall of Famer, like one more injury.

00:18:09
Speaker 2: Like I just I feel bad for Chris.

00:18:13
Speaker 3: It's just a crappy way to go out on a diving plan in the ninth inning of a five to nothing game. And yeah, for the team, it's gonna be very very watch over the next twenty four to forty is It's gonna be very ice to see how they respond to this.

00:18:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes it will. Man, not what we wanted on Saturday, but we'll see if the Braves can maybe overcome this keep their heads above water. And then add something I don't know, stranger things have happened, but it the climb up the mountain has become even steeper, like somebody just dropped like another twenty five pound weight into their backpacks and now they're trying to navigate a snowy Mountain with I mean, just another thing they Frankly, this team could not afford to have happen with an injury to maybe one of the best pictures, not maybe one of the best pictures in the game. All Right, Steven, that's.

00:19:03
Speaker 2: Gonna do it for us today.

00:19:04
Speaker 1: A big thank you to everybody for checking out this mini emergency episode of the show. As always, I think the plan is for Brad and I to do our usual Sunday night show and then, of course we have a important series with the Mets, even if it will not feature Chris Sale coming up this week, we will have plenty of shows with Steven and with Sean and with Brad and myself. So again, everybody, have a great rest of your weekend. Hopefully the Braves can win two games down in Miami and keep this thing rolling. We will see everybody next time.