Sports Time Radio

With the start of Baseball’s regular season right around the corner it’s starting to look like the American League East might be a division decided by which team is the healthiest.

We’ve mentioned here before that the New York Yankees will be starting the season without Giancarlo Stanton in their everyday line up and pitcher James Paxton out of the rotation. As well Luis Severino will miss the entire season after it was decided that he’d undergo Tommy John surgery.

It looks like you can add one more injury to the list for the Yankees. This time it’s outfielder Aaron Judge. Judge had been dealing with some soreness that at first the Yankees medical staff couldn’t identify. Yesterday it was finally reported that Judge has been dealing with a cracked rib.

The Yankees are saying that Judge will rest for two weeks and then be reevaluated. You have to believe that even if Judge is healthy after his two weeks of rest he’s not going to be ready to go when the Yankees open the season March 26th in Baltimore.

With the exception of Severino the Yankees should get  their other injured players back with plenty of regular season games to play, but this is setting up very similar to last season for the Yankees and while they handle those injuries well enough to win the A.L. East the question will be if this season goes like last season can they do it again.

Now the Yankees aren’t the only team in the A.L. East that is dealing with injuries to key pieces of their team.

The Boston Red Sox are reporting that it spears Chris Sale will avoid Tommy John surgery as his injury has been diagnosed as a flexor tendon strain. Sale will be shut down for a week and then resume throwing and the Red Sox will go from there.

The Red Sox had already planned to have Sale start the season on the Injured List as he’s been recovering from pneumonia; so this shouldn’t hurt how Boston was going to set up their rotation to start the season.

Sale is coming off the worst season of his career and only made 25 starts in 2019 because of injuries. Sale went 6-11 with a 4.40 ERA last season. He also threw a career low 147 1/3rd innings since becoming a starter.

Even with the trading of Mookie Betts the Red Sox should still be a factor in the American League playoff race either as a contender for the A.L. East title or in the wild card race, but they’re not only going to need a healthy Sale to do that they’re also going to need Eduardo Rodriquez to pitch like he did last season and they’ll also need Nathan Eovaldi to stay healthy and give them quality starts.

The Red Sox did have another injury as they put 2nd baseman Dustin Pedroia on the 60-day injury list a week or so ago.

Pedroia has been dealing with a knee injury that has allowed him to play in just 9 games the past two seasons. Pedroia played in just 3 games in 2018 and he appeared in 6 games last season before reaggravating that injury.

Pedroia is a former Rookie of the Year (2007) as well as a former MVP (2008) and you have to wonder at 36; he’ll turn 37 in August if it’s time for him to just walk away. He’s been a pivotal member of a World Series winner and you have to wonder if he’ll ever be healthy enough to contribute like he has in the past.

Pedroia does have this season and next season on his contract with a total of $25 million dollars in salary; so if he did decide to retire he’d have to come to some kind of agreement with the Red Sox on his contract. I doubt that money is the motivating factor that keeps Pedroia trying to return since he’s made approximately $115 million dollars over the course of his career.

Do you see Pedrioa being able to comeback? And if he comes back; what kind of player do you think he’d be?

With free agency approaching for NFL teams they’re going to have to make decisions on if or who they’ll use their franchise or transitional tags on.

There have already been a couple of teams that have placed their franchise tag on players. The Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs used their franchise tag on defensive tackle Chris Jones while the Jacksonville Jaquars put their franchise tag on defensive end Yannick Ngakoue.

Ngakoue has already come out and said that he doesn’t want to stay with the Jaquars; so will have to see if a trade happens or if he’ll possibly sit out next season. By being tagged it means that Ngakoue will be paid between $17.7 and $18.1 million dollar next season if he can’t agree to a contract with Jacksonville or a team that he would be traded to.

As a defensive tackle Jones is entitled to a little less under the franchise tag than a defensive end gets. If Kansas City is unable to sign Jones to a new contract they’ll pay him between $16 and 16.4 million dollars.

I understand that players want that big money and long term stability that a contract brings, but for one year at that kind of money you’d like to think they’d be set for life.

While it hasn’t been made official yet it’s being reported that the New Orleans Saints will use a 1st round tender tag on free agent Quarterback Taysom Hill.

This means that any team that would sign Hill would have to give the Saints a 1st round pick for that signing. This tag also allows the Saints the right to match any offer Hill might receive from another team.

The Saints have made it pretty clear that they want to resign Hill, but you can’t blame them for wanting to handle the situation this way. While I’m not sure that Hill has been a high priority for teams looking for quarterbacks this off season the tag shows Hill how much New Orleans wants him to return.

By placing this tag on Hill I think it’s almost certain that he’ll return to the Saints. I’d be shocked to see another team give up a 1st round pick for him.

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