Any parent who has ever tried to convince a child to remove a Band-Aid recognizes the futility of the endeavor.

"Just rip it."

"No! It'll hurt!"

"It hurts more to peel. Trust me. Just yank it all at once."

"No! It hurts! I can't!"

"OH MY GOD JUST RIP THE FU…."

<Parent lunges and swipes like a wolverine, child gasps, is fine, grimaces in wounded bratty anger anyway.>

(I'm a terrible parent, btw.)

Though we should know better, this fear follows us into adulthood, where we employ half measures in an effort to preserve arm hair instead of pursuing the only acceptable course of action: grip it and rip it.

The Band-Aid metaphor may not be original, but it keeps springing to mind as the Red Sox approach not only Chris Sale, but the entire 2020 season.

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Because ownership is so scarred by the idea of bridge years, and because there are still $99 family packs to sell that include hot dogs and pennants and Sam Summer and signed pictures of the cheerful Cody Ross, the Red Sox seem intent on picking and peeling at the edges of their problems instead of just tearing away.

The coming season is shaping up to be a disaster.

It's hard to imagine Sale throwing a pitch that matters. The rest of the rotation is non-existent. Who knows when we'll see Alex Verdugo?

Every decision the Red Sox make should be with 2021 and beyond in mind. They can limit the damage of this looming fallow period, but only if they focus on duration rather than intensity; ie., if 2020 is going to suck, it may as well suck hard.

Unfortunately, this isn't how John Henry and Co. are wired. They must always at least give the appearance of pushing forward, lest NESN's ratings tank. At some point, though, even the best-run organizations must take a step back before striding forward. Think the 2009 Patriots or the 2014 Celtics or the 2016 Bruins for local examples.

The Red Sox face an even harsher reckoning.

Their combination of bloated payroll, lean farm system, and competitive division has left them squeezed from all sides. They traded former MVP Mookie Betts and former Cy Young Award winner David Price to begin their rebuild with a payroll reset and infusion of prospects, but it's only the first step.

On Thursday, they announced that Sale has been diagnosed with a flexor strain and will shut it down for at least a week before resuming a throwing program. The club sought second and third opinions from experts James Andrews and Neil ElAttrache, and neither recommended surgery.

That doesn't change that a procedure feels inevitable, especially since Sale has battled shoulder, elbow, and forearm injuries over the last year and a half. Unless the Red Sox plan on fitting him with a Winter Soldier-style bionic arm, something's going to have to give.

And while it's easy for us to sit at home and demand that someone undergo surgery when doctors aren't yet prescribing it, the Red Sox have already risked torpedoing Sale's 2021 while embracing unrealistic hopes that he contributes meaningfully this season.

"Tommy John has been a factor in my life for 20 years now," Sale told reporters in Florida on Thursday, acknowledging how this story might eventually end.

This isn't simply about whether Sale needs surgery, though. In the bigger picture, the Red Sox should take a long, cold look at their roster and decide who's expendable. There's little doubt that chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom has been engaged in this exercise since the day he was hired, which is why the Red Sox have already replaced more than a dozen players on their 40-man roster since he arrived.

In a perfect world, everyone not named Xander Bogaerts or Rafael Devers would be on the block between now and July 31. That could make for some painful moves in the short term that will nonetheless benefit the long-term health of the organization, especially if you trust Bloom to identify the right pieces in return.

That means exploring deals for everyday players like Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Christian Vazquez.

It means dangling slugging DH J.D. Martinez at the trade deadline, since he'd potentially be the most impactful bat on the market and he's likely to opt out of his contract in the fall, anyway.

It means making every member of the bullpen available, from closer Brandon Workman to primary setup man Matt Barnes.

In short, it means to stop viewing 2020 like a season worth salvaging and to see it for what it really is: a Band-Aid in desperate need of yanking.