The Atlanta Braves announced Thursday that they signed left-handed pitcher Chris Sale to a two-year, $38 million contract.
Sale will be paid $16 million in 2024 and $22 million in 2025. There is also a club option for 2026, which would pay Sale $18 million if the Braves pick it up. He will donate 1% of his salary to the Atlanta Braves Foundation.
The Braves acquired Sale, 34, on Dec. 30 in a trade with the Boston Red Sox, along with around $17 million in cash. In return, Atlanta sent Vaughn Grissom, a promising young infielder, to Boston.
Sale is a seven-time All-Star who has battled injuries the past few years. He had Tommy John surgery in March 2020, which kept him out of the lineup until August 2021. He pitched just 5 2/3 innings in 2022 due to a litany of injuries, including a rib fracture, a pinky fracture and a wrist fracture. He missed a chunk of time in 2023 due to a shoulder issue.
That forest of injuries makes it difficult to see between the trees to actually discover what Sale has left in his arm. But the Braves appear to believe he has at least enough left to be their No. 4 pitcher behind Spencer Strider, Max Fried and Charlie Morton. Sale is just 34, and after pitching a total of 151 innings the past three seasons, he certainly has less wear-and-tear on his shoulder and forearm than most starting pitchers his age.
The big question is if Sale can stay healthy. After returning from his shoulder troubles in August 2023, he made nine starts through the end of the season and finished with a 3.92 ERA. He pitched into the sixth inning just once in those final nine starts.
Then again, that was Sale still recovering from an injury. At the start of the 2024 season, Sale will have had the entire offseason to rest and heal. The Braves will be hoping that’s the key to unlocking a late-career renaissance.
