Being able to now breathe a huge sigh of relief, the Boston Red Sox received the news that ace starting pitcher Chris Sale does not need Tommy John surgery, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan. Per a visit with renowned doctor James Andrews, Sale strictly has elbow inflammation and is not considered to be very serious.

With Sale’s timeframe to return unknown at this point, the Red Sox are going to need to cobble together any wins that they can get with Sale on the shelf, which has been a bit hard to come by this season. Currently sitting in third place in the American League East, the defending World Series champions are firmly in a fight for their playoff lives.

Sale has put together an up and down 2019 season for the Red Sox, as the former Chicago White Sox ace has struggled through 25 starts so far this season. Six wins, eleven losses, and a 4.40 ERA have all resulted in a combination that not many expected out of Sale.

Signed through his age-37 season, Sale is now on the shelf for the foreseeable future, with the eventual hope that the Red Sox do get to see him pitch still this season, and effectively at that rate. Needing to make up a bunch of ground in the Wild Card race, especially since winning the division is all but impossible, Boston needs all of the help that they can get.

Other reports have come out and said that with Sale not even being looked at for another six weeks, his season is most likely over, showing how far the Red Sox must climb to even make the playoffs, and Sale’s impact on any postseason matchups is tough to forecast so far ahead of time.

In lieu of having Sale start games for Boston, Andrew Cashner may end up being the next man up for the team, as the former Baltimore Oriole was acquired well in advance of this year’s trade deadline. The former Baltimore starter has been working out of the pen for the Red Sox, and his numbers have been much worse with Boston than with Baltimore, which is pretty difficult to do.

If this team wants to even sniff the wild card round (which they are currently 6.5 games back of), they will need to rely on players other than Sale, and by not making a ton of needle-moving moves at the deadline, this team is stuck with the reinforcements that they currently have.