The Chicago White Sox announced early Saturday morning that their ace, lefty Chris Sale, will be sidelined for three weeks with an avulsion fracture on his right foot. He suffered this fracture in an accident at his home Friday and arrived at camp on Saturday with the injury.
It sounds like it could have been a lot worse than it is, but Sale's status for Opening Day is in doubt. He had X-rays taken, and once more tests come back when the swelling goes down, then team physicians can form a better prognosis. If he is unable to go on Opening Day, then manager Robin Ventura will most certainly tab newly-acquired starter Jeff Samardzija to open the season on April 6 vs. the Royals.
Sale is coming off of a fantastic 2014 campaign, and this season the White Sox have built the team up through free agency and trades looking to compete in the American League Central division. Sale finished third in the Cy Young vote a year ago and posted a 2.17 ERA with 208 strikeouts in 174 innings. He is the ace of this staff that has some quality arms in it this season with Sale followed by the aforementioned Samardzija to go along with John Danks and Jose Quintana.
Sale did spend some time on the disabled list with left elbow strain a season ago, so, hopefully, this is not a sign of things to come in 2015 for the lefty ace on the South side of Chicago. Once he has more tests performed, team doctors can set a better time table on Sale's return to the mound.