NORTH PORT, Fla. — Chris Sale’s Cy Young Award has been accorded all the honor granted to guest towels and the vacuum cleaner. After being awarded the top pitching prize in November, Sale said it’s in a closet in his family’s home in Naples, down the coast from the Braves' spring training home.
“As someone once said, it’s just a hunk of metal, right?” Sale said Wednesday on the day that Braves pitchers and catchers held their first workout.
It was a reference to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s ill-advised description of the World Series trophy after his decision not to strip the Houston Astros of their 2017 championship despite their sign-stealing operation.
At least Sale earned his hunk fairly.
But if you wanted an insight into Sale’s mindset as spring training opens, there it is.
While he won his first Cy Young at the age of 35 and became the first National Leaguer since 2011 to win the pitching triple crown with the most wins (18) and strikeouts (225) and lowest ERA (2.38), Sale is duly unimpressed with himself.
“Being a Cy Young winner, I guess, is just something to put on your business card or whatever it is people do,” he said. “It didn’t change anything for me. I still had to go throw. I had to work out. I had to prepare for a season. If anything, it’s probably just put a bigger target on my back.”
Sale is unusual in the Braves clubhouse in this respect this spring. Where so many of his teammates are coming back from injury or down seasons, Sale is here preparing after a career year.
A year ago, on the heels of a historic season at the plate and a disappointing second consecutive playoff loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, the Braves were unabashed in proclaiming their “World Series or bust” aspirations.
There was no such bravado Wednesday.
“We are not going to be making any statements like that,” first baseman Matt Olson said with a smile, emphasizing “not.”
A 14-year MLB veteran who has dealt with his share of injuries and seasons that failed to meet his high expectations, Sale is fully aware of the game’s fickle nature. But if he needed a reminder, he needed look only at his teammates last season as the Braves fell off from an MLB-best 104 wins in 2023 to 89 last year.
As his season progressed — in the second half of the season he had a 1.86 ERA in 11 starts and gave up only two home runs over 67-2/3 winnings — he tried not to let himself get caught up in the success.
“Just when you think you’re out of it, you’re right back in it,” he said. “And right when you think you’ve got it, it’s gone. For me, especially, going through what I had been through in the past and stuff, how easily it can show up and how easily it can be gone is kind of the way I was looking at it.”
Given his age and history, there have been few seasons like Sale’s 2024. His 177-2/3 innings were his most since 2017 with the Boston Red Sox, when he was 28. Since, he had encountered a series of injuries. He missed all of the 2020 season and much of 2021 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. He made a total of 11 combined starts in 2021 and 2022 with a series of unrelated injuries before making 20 starts with a 4.30 ERA in 2023. It was a rough chapter of his career after he arguably was the game’s top pitcher from 2012-18, when he finished in the top six of AL Cy Young balloting for seven consecutive seasons.
As such, his acquisition by trade from Boston for shortstop Vaughn Grissom was received with faltering enthusiasm by Braves fans.
But, finally healthy, he became only the fifth pitcher since 1992 to throw 175 or more innings with an ERA of 2.40 or lower in his age-35 season or older, according to Stathead. (He joined pretty heady company — Randy Johnson, Kevin Brown, Roger Clemens and Justin Verlander.)
“I’m just appreciative,” Sale said. “I have myself put in a lot of work, but there’s a lot of other people behind the scenes that put in a lot of work to get me out there, too.”
The fact that Sale’s 2024 was so elite and that he’s a year older suggests that a repeat is not likely. Baseball Reference projects him to have a 3.28 ERA over 159 innings.
Needing stability in the rotation with the departure of ace Max Fried to the New York Yankees, the return of Spencer Strider from elbow surgery and the No. 5 spot still to be decided, the Braves likely would sign up for those stats from Sale. Last year, only 18 pitchers in MLB had an ERA at or below 3.30 with 150 or more innings pitched. And Sale has put himself in position to do it.
“I think I kind of found a routine that really worked for me last year, and when I needed to adjust, I could,” he said. “But, again, I’m basically just trying to replicate what last offseason looked like and kind of do the same thing in spring training, and hopefully it translates to the season.”
A little wordy, but also suitable for a business card.
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