He’s the ace.
Chris Sale, that is.
The Red Sox are long removed from the days of the “He’s the ace” t-shirts, the ones worn by Wade Miley, Clay Buchholz, Justin Masterson, Rick Porcello and Joe Kelly back in spring training of 2015, the last time Ben Cherington assembled a starting rotation.
Not only do the Red Sox now have an elite starter in Sale, paired with an elite reliever in Craig Kimbrel, they’ve also got a projectable rotation that is six pitchers deep and a relief corps that, while it could use some additions, is full of players with multiple years of major league experience.