(WEEI) Just when it looked like the Red Sox's COVID-19 outbreak may have finally been settling down, they were dealt another significant blow Friday.
Left-hander Chris Sale is now the latest Boston player to test positive, with the news breaking Friday morning. Sale will miss his scheduled start at the Chicago White Sox -- his former team -- on Sunday and possibly longer.
Sale is the 12th Red Sox to land on the COVID list over the last couple weeks. Three of those players -- Kiké Hernandez, Josh Taylor and Danny Santana -- recently returned, while eight others remained on the list as of Friday morning.
Those eight -- now nine with Sale -- are Christian Arroyo, Martin Perez, Xander Bogaerts, Matt Barnes, Hirokazu Sawamura, Yairo Munoz, Nick Pivetta and Jarren Duran.
There was hope that some of those players would be cleared to rejoin the Red Sox for their series against the White Sox in Chicago this weekend. It's unclear if Sale's positive test will affect any of those plans.