BOSTON -- The best way for the Red Sox to get back to the playoffs next season is for ace Chris Sale to be healthy again. And at this point, the club expects he will be.

Sale was shut down for the season on Aug. 17 due to inflammation in his left elbow. During a visit with Dr. James Andrews a couple of days later, Sale received a PRP shot to promote healing in his elbow.

“He’s recovering well,” said assistant general manager Brian O’Halloran. “We’re going to take everything step by step with Chris and his checkpoints as we go through the offseason, but we, at this point expect him to be healthy coming into Spring Training along with the rest of the rotation that we have under control.”

That includes lefty David Price, who pitched just two innings after Aug. 4 due to a left wrist injury that required surgery last week.

“The surgery went well and we fully expect David to be ready to go,” said O’Halloran. “Normal offseason once he recovers from the surgery and ready to go in Spring Training.”

As for Sale, there are still a couple of key checkpoints. He will soon have a follow-up with Dr. Andrews. And after that, the hope is that Sale can resume throwing, which will give the Sox a better idea of how healthy he is.

On Aug. 19, the Sox sent out a press release that stated Sale would have a shutdown period of roughly six weeks before resuming throwing and visiting with Andrews. Monday was the six-week anniversary of that.

“Sometimes schedules change and we’re taking it step by step with Chris and he will see him at some point but it hasn’t happened to date,” said O’Halloran.

As for the throwing program, and why that has taken longer than expected?

“There was a range of when that could begin and we’re taking that a little bit slower than we initially anticipated,” O’Halloran said. “Our medical staff recommended that we take it slowly just to give it as much time as possible to heal before we start throwing, but that will happen sometime in the near future.”

Sox in ‘early days’ of GM search

Red Sox president/CEO Sam Kennedy said Monday the club had not requested permission to other organizations yet to interview potential candidates to replace president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.

Kennedy is leading the day-to-day aspect of the search, but he said that owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner will play a big role in determining the club’s next leader of baseball ops.

One reason the Red Sox can be deliberate is because of the trust they have in the four executives (Eddie Romero, O’Halloran, Raquel Ferreira and Zack Scott) running the department in the interim.

“Ultimately, John, Tom and I are engaged in a search and we’ll work together on it in the coming days and weeks ahead and where we are is early days,” said Kennedy. “We’ve had an opportunity to do a lot of due diligence. We’re engaged. It’s still early days but the search is underway.”

Kennedy said the Sox are open minded about how the department will be structured, and whether it might include a president of baseball operations and a GM.

Coaching changes?

Red Sox manager Alex Cora was non-committal when asked if there would be any changes to his coaching staff. Typically, a team that doesn’t make any changes confirms that immediately after the season ends. So it seems likely there will be at least some turnover.

“I’ve been talking to them over the weekend and we’re going to meet as a group in the upcoming days,” Cora said. “Obviously like in every other organization there’s always changes and we’re talking from scouting all the way to the manager. I don’t know what kind of changes we’re going to make, I think the whole group is coming and we’re talking way down there all the way to the top. We’ll address the situation and make decisions accordingly.”

One situation to keep an eye on is if Cora’s older brother Joey becomes available. Joey Cora has been the third base coach for the Pirates the last three seasons, but Pittsburgh parted ways with manager Clint Hurdle over the weekend.

Decisions on other core players

Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez aren’t the only Sox players who face uncertain futures. Three core players from recent years -- Rick Porcello, Mitch Moreland and Brock Holt -- are all eligible for free agency.

"Well those guys were obviously huge keys for us in their careers with us,” said Romero. “Guys like Rick and Mitch, those are foundation pieces in the locker room and we're so thankful for what they've done for us. I think those decisions are ones that we have to consider and those are the ones that we're going to be meeting on in the next few days. We haven't discussed those as of yet but we'll get to that in short order."

Following Sundays’ game, Holt passed out a collection of his bats to fans who were outside the players’ parking lot.