Nicely, Chris Sale now not has to do what he does below the cloud of a one-year contract. On Tuesday, the Braves introduced they’d signed their soon-to-be 37-year-old ace to a one-year contract extension with a group possibility for 2028. The deal represents an enormous elevate. Sale is making $18 million this yr – the group possibility yr on the finish of the two-year extension he signed again in 2024 – and the brand new extension can pay him $27 million in 2027. If the Braves decide up the 2028 possibility, they’ll pay him $30 million. No phrase of a buyout for that closing yr has been reported, and the announcement included no point out of a 1% donation to the Atlanta Braves Basis.
Though the Braves aren’t getting the form of low cost you affiliate with a contract extension, this looks like a no brainer for them. Sure, they’re paying ace costs for the age-37 (and presumably age-38) season of a pitcher whose harm historical past features a Tommy John surgical procedure and 5 variations on the phrase “fracture.” However Sale actually is an ace, and his efficiency has confirmed no indicators of dropping off. Since he arrived in Atlanta in 2024 (and for the sake of Purple Sox followers, I received’t point out how he received there), Sale has a 25-8 file with a 2.46 ERA and a couple of.33 FIP. He’s struck out almost a 3rd of the batters he’s confronted, and he received the Cy Younger award in his first season with the group. In 2025, his four-seamer averaged 94.8 mph. That’s above common, particularly for a left-handed starter, and particularly for somebody with a cool sidearm supply, and particularly once you issue within the bump in efficient velocity as a result of above-average extension from his 6-foot-6 body. That’s loads of especiallys making Sale’s velocity play up, and it’s reassuring to know that it has regarded fairly secure lately.
Sale’s slider is simply as essential because the fastball. He throws it almost half the time, pounding the underside of the zone towards righties and recognizing it down and away towards lefties. (That final half is a change; till 2025, Sale would find the slider on the very backside of the zone towards all batters, however final yr, he began specializing in the surface nook to lefties.) It’s definitely working. In response to Statcast’s run values, Sale’s slider has been essentially the most helpful pitch in baseball over the previous two years, value 47 runs. No different pitch has been value greater than 40.
It’s as early because it will get, however Sale’s age-37 season is shaping up fairly properly. On Sunday, he made his first spring coaching begin, placing out three over two scoreless innings. His fastball averaged 95.1 mph. Sale will get previous and decelerate sometime. All people does, and for all we all know it may occur this yr, however I believe it’s honest to say that proper now, the one indication that it’s coming is the age column on his participant web page.
Now let’s get into the unhealthy stuff. I solely gave you numbers concerning the previous two seasons for a motive. Sale has suffered a litany of accidents over his profession, and for some time there, it regarded like they may even knock him out fully. He missed the 2020 season because of Tommy John surgical procedure, and his restoration, mixed with a damaged pinky and a stress fracture in his ribcage, restricted him to simply 11 begins in 2021 and 2022. That’s 11 begins over three years. Sale wasn’t himself when he returned in 2023, and he missed greater than two months with a stress fracture in his scapula. Regardless of regaining his dominant kind in 2024, he missed one other couple months with a fractured ribcage after diving for a ball in 2025.
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Accidents and age are the principle causes the extension makes a number of sense from Sale’s viewpoint, too. Pitchers get harm on a regular basis, and he’s no exception. It’s exhausting to think about even a participant as dominant as Sale has been getting a three-year contract that runs by means of his age-40 season, not to mention one that offers him a top-15 wage amongst starters. If he misses important time in 2026, the Braves might properly resolve to not decide up that group possibility. However – and please give me some credit score for locating a technique to keep away from this phrase for the primary 700 phrases of this text – when wholesome, Sale is beginning to appear like a kind of pitchers we shouldn’t depend out till we see indicators of actual decline with our personal eyes.
I’d additionally add that regardless of the accidents, you may no less than make the argument that Sale is a fairly sturdy pitcher by at this time’s requirements. Since his first season as a full-time starter in 2012, he has averaged simply over 142 innings pitched per season. Over the past three seasons, he has averaged 135 1/3 innings pitched. He’s a top-60 pitcher by way of innings pitched each over the previous two years and over the previous three years. In case you had been a GM, how a lot would you pay for a assured 135 innings from Chris Sale?
By nearly any metric, Sale has been a top-five pitcher over the previous two years. Nevertheless it goes manner past that. His 10.0 WAR over the previous two seasons ranks sixteenth highest amongst all pitchers of their age-35 and -36 seasons, ever. Almost all people forward of him is within the Corridor of Fame (or could be if not for steroids, throwing the 1919 World Sequence, or normal insufferability).
Pitching WAR, Season Ages 35-36
I made that desk sortable for a motive. We also needs to observe that everyone forward of Sale on the checklist threw no less than 120 extra innings than he did, thanks each to the fractured ribcage and to the period by which he’s pitching. He’s received the bottom FIP on there and the third-lowest ERA. In case you take a look at the highest 90 pitchers by way of WAR of their age-35 and -36 seasons, then rank them by WAR per inning, Sale ranks third, behind Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Sale hasn’t simply been nice; he’s been traditionally nice for a participant his age.
I’m discovering it not possible to not deliver Johnson into this dialog. I do know that I shouldn’t. I do know that Chris Sale will not be Randy Johnson. Johnson was a certainly one of one. Over his total profession, Sale has thrown simply 14 pitches at or above 100 mph, and the toughest pitch he threw in his age-36 season was 98.7 mph. Johnson spent nearly his total profession within the triple digits, and he touched 96.6 in his age-45 season. Forty-five! Furthermore, he did so throughout a time when velocities had been considerably decrease. Johnson by no means even regarded like he was attempting to throw significantly exhausting, and he stayed wholesome sufficient to eclipse the 200-inning mark 14 completely different instances. Sale has an effortful crossfire supply, and accidents have stored him below 200 innings in all however three seasons. Johnson had a profession 28% strikeout price that translated to a Ok%+ of 176. Sale is up above 30%, however on this age of strikeouts, that leaves his Ok%+ at 146.
Nevertheless it’s exhausting not to consider Sale as one thing like Randy Johnson Jr. He’s a mere 6’6” somewhat than Johnson’s 6’10”, however he’s essentially the most dominant left-handed strikeout artist the sport has seen since Johnson. He’s overwhelming batters with an identical sidearm, East-West, four-seamer/slider method. And after negotiating his mid-30s derailment, that method is holding up in addition to Johnson’s did (no less than up to now). If nothing else, that ought to give us hope for the subsequent couple years. Sale is a pitcher, which is to say that even earlier than we contemplate in his age and harm historical past, we all know that the subsequent pitch he throws may very well be his final. However he’s following a blueprint that allowed Johnson to pitch at 46 years previous, and whereas it’s unlikely to work for an additional 10 years, it doesn’t present any indicators of failing proper now.