Six years ago, Chris Sale recorded the final three outs of the World Series for the Red Sox to reach the top of the mountain. At that point, Sale – one of the game’s true aces – had stunningly impressive numbers and a ring on his respected résumé. Between his ability and personality, he earned reverence throughout the sport.
Still, something was missing: A Cy Young Award — reserved for a select few, a symbol of immortal greatness. Sale had finished in the top five of Cy Young voting in six consecutive seasons at one time. But the award remained elusive as he dealt with one injury after another during a string of lost seasons. One accomplishment had evaded him.
Until now.
On Wednesday, Sale was named the National League Cy Young Award winner, voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. He won the award over the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler (second place) and the Pirates’ Paul Skenes (the third-place finisher who Monday took home the NL Rookie of the Year Award). Sale received 26 of 30 first-place votes. The other four went to Wheeler.
“It’s special. It is. And I appreciate it,” Sale said on a Zoom call following the announcement. “I appreciate it for obviously the accolade and the trophy and the recognition part of it, but I think I appreciate it more because it reminds me of the people that helped me get here. This wasn’t some easy (journey). If I would’ve won it years ago, maybe, but this wasn’t an easy way to get to winning this trophy for the first time, or this award. As soon as it happened, I’m thinking about people and teammates and coaches and trainers and family. It’s special to me because of all the hard work that other people put in to get me here.”
Sale is the first Brave to win the award since Tom Glavine in 1998. Braves pitchers have taken home the honor eight times: Warren Spahn (1957), Glavine (1991, 1998), Greg Maddux (1993, 1994 and 1995), John Smoltz (1996) and Sale (2024). The Dodgers (12 Cy Young Awards) are the only franchise with more than the Braves. On the MLB Network award show, Maddux joined the broadcast and announced Sale as this year’s winner. (When talking about joining this group of Braves, Sale cracked up when he quipped: “I think I brought that group down a little bit, but I’m glad that I dipped my toe in that pool.”)
Sale’s accomplishment is much more impressive when viewed with this context: After a handful of injury-plagued seasons, everyone simply wondered whether Sale could stay healthy enough to somewhat return to form and help the Braves, who had acquired and even extended him. At age 35, he then exceeded all expectations en route to winning the award that had escaped him all those years.
“I definitely feel like I appreciate it more now than had I won it during that stretch I had from ‘12 to ‘18,” Sale said, referencing his string of years finishing in the top six in voting for the award but never winning. “You learn a lot about yourself. I think when things get taken away and you get them back, you learn to appreciate it a little bit more and you treat it a little bit differently. I feel like I definitely did that this year, was able to kind of slow things down and appreciate baseball, and where I was at, and what I was doing, who I was doing it with.”
Sale is no flash, all business. And his play this season sent a resounding message through the sport:
Yes, Chris Sale is back.
He still is Chris Sale.
“I mean, look, we didn’t want to put unfair expectations on him,” Braves president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But we wouldn’t have extended him (after acquiring him) if we didn’t have belief that he could be back to a top-flight starter. There was no need for us to end up doing that, and we had that strong of belief. And then the person as well. There’s a reason he’s been as successful as he has been. And again, ability is going to be first and foremost, that’s why you initially even target players. But then you factor in tremendous person, teammate, character, work ethic, all of that — that’s just very hard to find.”
Anthopoulos has been in baseball since 2000. In 25 seasons in and around clubhouses, he has seen every type of player and personality imaginable. He knows real from fake.
Sale is one of a kind.
“A lot of times, the word ‘competitor’ gets thrown around, and you think about someone who is salty or fiery,” Anthopoulos said. “He’s a Grade-A human being, and you can be competitive and be a great person at the same time. And that to me is authentic. It’s not an act, it’s genuine. When it’s time to pitch and compete and win, he’s doing everything he can. When that’s done, he’s as good a teammate as you’re going to find, (as) good a person as you’re gonna find, and he’s a great example. And he commands respect in the room just because of who he is and how he goes about it.
“It’s great having a guy like that to lead your staff and that everyone can look to. He’s as accountable as anyone you’ve ever seen. You never hear him make excuses. And he’s all about team. And you can’t help but follow him, a guy like that, because of the way he goes about it. I think I can speak for every single player in that (clubhouse) — I bet you they would say the same things.”
Sale’s first Cy Young Award seemed like a foregone conclusion when he finished the regular season by winning a pitching triple crown for leading the NL in wins (18), ERA (2.38) and strikeouts (225). Sale is the first pitcher in Braves history to earn a triple crown and the first in the NL since Clayton Kershaw with the Dodgers in 2011. Sale didn’t pitch after Sept. 19 because of back spasms, but by then he had made his case. He clearly stood above the rest.
Dating to June 17, Sale allowed no more than two earned runs in 18 consecutive starts to finish the season — and posted a 1.96 ERA with 143 strikeouts over that span. Since earned runs became official in both leagues in 1913, this was the longest single-season streak of its kind for a starting pitcher, surpassing Walter Johnson (1919) and Félix Hernández (2014). The Braves, who battled to make the postseason, went 14-4 in Sale’s historic run of starts with two or fewer earned runs.
In 2024, Sale had six outings with at least 10 strikeouts. He became the first left-hander in franchise history to punch out 200 batters in a season. Sale has eight 200-strikeout seasons in his 14-year career — tied for second most among lefties in MLB history with Hall of Famer Steve Carlton, and only trailing Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, whom Sale idolized growing up.
Aware of his injury history, the Braves often gave Sale extra rest between starts. But make no mistake: He was a bulldog. He didn’t ride a season of five-inning outings to this award. Sale went at least seven innings in 13 of his 29 starts, and at least six innings in all but 10 starts. He never pitched fewer than four innings.
Another jaw-dropping aspect of Sale’s season: He was 11-0 with a 1.85 ERA against teams with a record of .500 or above, the second-lowest ERA in the sport among starters with at least 10 such outings. (He trailed only his teammate, Reynaldo López, who had a 1.55 ERA against teams .500 or better.) Sale joined Gerrit Cole (2023) and Curt Schilling (2004) as the only pitchers in the majors, since 1901, to win at least 10 games without suffering a loss through at least 10 starts against teams with a .500 or winning record — but Sale’s 1.85 ERA is the lowest of the three.
No one could’ve expected all of this from Sale . But the Braves projected at least some of it — or else they wouldn’t have traded for him. In a late December trade, they acquired Sale and cash from the Red Sox. (Funny enough, the Red Sox ended up paying for Sale’s Cy Young season.) The Braves knew Sale had missed a lot of time in recent years, but they weren’t scared away.
In 2020, Sale underwent Tommy John surgery — a legitimate injury. But in 2021, he tested positive for COVID-19. In 2022, he fractured his pinkie on a comebacker, then broke his wrist falling off his bike almost a month later. In 2023, he dealt with a stress reaction in his left scapula.
He made only 31 starts from the beginning of 2020 through the end of 2023, but the Braves paid more attention to the context. They knew Sale had suffered some weird injuries.
“Those things took a lot of time out, and those are freak injuries,” Anthopoulos said. “If you look at his track record and his history, he wasn’t an injury-prone guy. It all snowballed in one area, but he had been a durable starter. Yes, the Tommy John was a real injury, and he had that (scapula) issue with the Red Sox, but that was the first year back. So, we understood that there was risk. I mean, we’d be naive to not think that — there’s always risks, especially when you pitch. But we did feel like maybe the reputation or the narrative around him was maybe a little overblown.”
On the final day of the regular season, Charlie Morton, Sale’s teammate in 2024, said people sometimes make assumptions based on broad narratives. Morton implied that Sale’s season was not some underdog story.
It was simply Sale being healthy again.
“The guy has clearly been one of the best pitchers in the game, when healthy, for how many years now?” Morton told the AJC then. “I just don’t see it that way. I think what happens, and sometimes rightfully so — oftentimes rightfully so — is that you have a bad year, and then you’re hurt, and you’re struggling to get back, and people just write you off.”
Many people wrote off Sale.
But in 2024, he proved he’s still an ace, still one of the best in the game, still worthy of the aura that surrounded him earlier in his career. In earning his first Cy Young Award, Sale etched his name into baseball annals while adding a shining accomplishment to his illustrious career.
At the beginning of the season, no one expected Sale to take home his first Cy Young Award – not even Sale.
“Short answer, no,” Sale said. “My goal at the beginning of this year was to just be healthy. Getting greedy and thinking of things like this would’ve been maybe a little over my skis. Coming to a new team that made a trade for me when I’m sure there were a lot of people that kind of gave that trade the side-eye when it first happened, and for a team to take a chance on me, and going to a new environment and the new fanbase, and really just a stacked team, a really good team, I just wanted to be healthy. To say I’d be sitting here right now would be kind of crazy. I just wanted to be able to do my job, really.”
Sale will look to continue his dominance in 2025 after this season ended with back spasms. Sale said he’ll once again be able to experience a normal offseason, which he’s said was important to his success this year.
He said he was lined up to pitch Game 3 of a potential National League Division Series against the Dodgers at Truist Park if the Braves had advanced past San Diego. Sale threw a bullpen session two days after the Braves were eliminated just for his own peace of mind. This side session put Sale’s mind at ease because it reassured him that he could’ve pitched if necessary and that he could have a normal offseason because he felt fine.
Sale, one of the best pitchers of his generation, has a 3.04 career ERA. He has a World Series ring. He won a triple crown. He has a Gold Glove Award. He’s an eight-time All-Star.
Now he has a Cy Young Award. It certainly strengthens his Hall of Fame case, whenever he’s eligible in the future.
Does Sale think about that at all?
“Not for me. Not really,” Sale said. “That’s a decision for other people to make, really. My job doesn’t change one way or the other, right? If it ended tomorrow, I got no chance. I got a lot of work to do if that’s the case. And I’m not gonna sit here and look at this big, giant mountain in front of me – I’m just gonna start climbing it, right? My job is to go out there and give my team a chance to win, and I want to be able to do that to the best of my ability. I mean, heck, I had the first healthy season in, like, five years, now we’re talking about Hall of Fame. I’m just appreciative I got through this one and I want to enjoy this moment and soak it in. I got a lot of people calling me, a lot of people texting me, and I want to give them the time because they’re the ones that got me here.”
For now, Sale will enjoy the moment.
He’s undecided on where he’ll put his Cy Young hardware.
“Probably not somewhere you’d see it,” said the humble Sale who craves winning much more than personal accolades.
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