The Braves announced this afternoon that they’ve placed southpaw Chris Sale on the 15-day injured list with what the club has termed a fractured left ribcage. The club recalled left-hander Austin Cox in a corresponding move. As noted by David O’Brien of The Athletic, Sale was injured on Wednesday night when he made a diving play to stop a grounder off the bat of Juan Soto.
It’s a brutal blow for Atlanta to be dealt, particularly following a banner week that saw them sweep the then-division leading Mets and get within five games of an NL Wild Card spot. They’ve won seven of their last ten games, but if they’re going to keep that momentum going in a bid to get back over .500 and more firmly return to playoff contention they’ll now need to do so without Sale for the time being. The reigning NL Cy Young award winner, Sale has built on his brilliant 2024 season with a 2025 campaign that’s been nearly as good. Across 15 starts this year, the 36-year-old has pitched to a brilliant 2.52 ERA with a 2.65 FIP across 89 1/3 innings of work.
He’s struck out a phenomenal 30.8% of his opponents while walking just 7.0%. Those excellent peripherals have left him with a 2.96 SIERA, making him one of just seven qualified starters in baseball this year with a figure under three. Only Logan Webb and Paul Skenes are having better seasons by measure of ERA, and Sale is doing all of that despite terrible batted ball luck: his .329 BABIP allowed is the fourth-highest figure among qualified starters in the majors this year. It’s been another banner year for the southpaw, who has looked rejuvenated in Atlanta after injury-marred seasons with the Red Sox from 2019 to 2023.
Unfortunately, that resurgence is now put on hold by another significant injury. Sale’s timetable for a return to action is not yet known at this point, but it’s worth noting that a stress fracture in Sale’s right ribs cost him the first half of the 2022 season. After being sidelined in mid-March by the injury, Sale did not return to the mound until early July. A similar timeline would put the remainder of the southpaw’s 2025 campaign in danger, but it’s important to note that it’s unclear if Sale’s current rib cage fracture is as severe as the rib issue he dealt with in 2022.
However long the ace’s absence ultimately ends up being, it leaves Atlanta with a rotation mix that’s stretched very thin. The team is already without Reynaldo Lopez for the foreseeable future after he underwent shoulder surgery earlier this year, and AJ Smith-Shawver is done for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Spencer Schwellenbach and Spencer Strider will attempt to hold things down at the front of the rotation in Sale’s absence, while Grant Holmes and Bryce Elder will look to handle mid-rotation duties. Rookie Didier Fuentes currently holds the fifth starter job after making a spot start against the Marlins yesterday, but another starer like Hurston Waldrep, Davis Daniel, or even Ian Anderson could also be called upon to help round out the rotation mix.
Game over.
“Game over, man!” — Pvt. Hudson
R.I.P. Bill Paxton
“We should build a fire, sing some songs…”
Nicely done (and I believe he peppered that phrase with a few expletive deleteds).
That’s a wrap boys see you in 26′ 🫡…. Even worse Sale is our best trade chip smh. May be blessing in disguise I guess.
Sorry to hear that. When it rains it pours. Maybe with the extra Devers money you can trade for some help? Never good to see a good player get hurt. Hope he recovers soon.
Appreciate the sentiment, but Sale is on the Braves now not the Redsox lol
May want to delete.
Haha, I really messed that comment up. But my sentiments and positive vibes stay the same to the Braves and their fans. Sorry my brain malfunctioned!
Good movie. Stars the Workaholics cast.
Trade rumors over
Dick Mountain and Kyle Gibson just got a team not named the Blue Jays to garner interest. Let the bidding wars begin! Since Gibson will only make the minimum the bids will have to entail gift cards to the all you can eat Chinese buffet and connected massage parlor.
Chris Sale injured? No way
“Chris Sale injured?”…Name another active(not on I.L)pitcher that has two years of 200 innings pitched, let alone the 4 years of 200 ip possessed by Chris Sale?
And if it was 2017 (his last 200 inn year) I wouldnt have said it. But its not, Im saying after 6 years of averaging 70 inns a year.
“Averaging 70 inns”..Great job of cherry picking and using the covid year(’20) to make your point seem stronger.
“using covid year”
Sale underwent TJ surgery in March of 2020. They couldve had a 500 game schedule that year and he wouldve still had a total of zero.
Theres nothing cherry picking about ‘the last six years’. It the most relevant info. Its not like Id use stats from 2013 to point out his current durability. Now thats cherry picking.
I’ve never seen someone get owned so many times in one article.
Dude,you’re lying to yourself if you think Sale wouldn’t have been useful to you last year and this year. He is injured but he isn’t out for the year THIS year so he would have been more useful to you than Grissom. You almost sound like someone who was waiting for this so you could jump all over it.
@Reggies arbitrarily choosing 6 years is cherry picking and self serving. Almost never would one take a subset of 6 over 5. You clearly wanted to add the 6th season because he missed the shortened season and it supports your narrative.
That said yes injuries have been a problem for Sale. This one is rather unfortunate as it occurred diving. His 2023 injury was kind of a freak thing as well. In the end though they still resulted(or will) in games missed.
Logan Webb and Zack Wheeler each have 2 seasons of 200+ innings pitched. There’s probably others.
Pretty much all of Sale’s long seasons happened before all his injury issues. One wonders if all that mileage was at least partially a contributor to his many injuries since.
Well…Kershaw has 5 seasons of 200+ innings and Verlander has 12 such seasons. Both are not on the IL.
Not your best day mlb fan.
“Kershaw has 5″…You’re making my point for me. All the guys you mentioned are Hall of Famers in waiting.
Chris Sale has a borderline HOF case and you don’t get that from being on the I.L your whole career.
By the way, Kershaw, Verlander and Scherzer also have extensive injury histories, as does any modern day professional pitcher.
“Kershaw has 5″…You’re making my point for me. All the guys you mentioned are Hall of Famers in waiting”
as good as degrom has been i dont think he will make the hall of fame and he has 3 200+ season and active
Logan Webb probably not either as he is very good
Jose quintana 4 times and they were even teammates … should we keep going?
mlb fan
June 21, 2025
“Chris Sale injured?”…Name another active(not on I.L)pitcher that has two years of 200 innings pitched, let alone the 4 years of 200 ip possessed by Chris Sale?
This what you posted and I replied to. You didn’t put any other qualifiers, other than 2/4 seasons of 200+ innings and not currently on the IL.
Where am I incorrect?
Then you pointed out they are both future HoF inductees.
“Roll” then added his list of guys that also have at least 2 seasons of 200+ innings, are currently not on the IL, and that are either unlikely to make the HoF or have zero chance of induction.
In summary, we can look at it from many different ways, but the result is always the same — you were wrong in both posts, lol.
“Roll” then added his list of guys that also have at least 2 seasons of 200+ innings, are currently not on the IL, and that are either unlikely to make the HoF or have zero chance of induction.
thats not nice to say about logan webb .. he still has a chance he is young 🙂
Fair enough…deGrom and Webb both have a chance still, but both have work to do. In deGrom’s case, he needs to stay healthy and elite for another few seasons, at minimum. For Webb, he needs to keep doing what he has been, but for another decade, and without any major injury. He could also use a better win rate, but that relies more on the Giants ability to score runs.
For both of them, it would help a ton if the perspective on counting numbers for HoF entry changes soon, which it might!
Side note: As a Dodger fan, Webb is easily the most frustrating pitcher my team faces regularly. He throws so many pitches that seem so hittable, but they never are!
So..off the top of my head justin Verlander is active has more than 4 year years with 200+ ip…him
Sonny Gray is another example. He’s very good but likely not going to the Hall of Fame.
Miles Mikolas has done it 3 times but has no chance of going to the Hall.
My first thought was that he wiped out on his bike again.
Lou:
Did Joe Bi-den go on the IL too?
No but Trump’s got a catheter. =D Enjoy the Catheter King. You must have chum for brains.
He’s running out of bones to break
You just break the part you already broke till your bones all look like knotted up tree limbs.
Wade – I’ve often wondered if Sale has ever made the effort to put on some weight. I know some people are blessed with an extremely high metabolism, but fact is Sale at 6’6″ 180 lbs will always be susceptible to rib fractures. He has to be one of the thinnest players in the game.
That is super thin!
Wade – For reference, Crochet at the same height is 65 pounds heavier than Sale.
Even Randy Johnson at 4 inches taller was still 45 pounds heavier than Sale.
I am 6’4″. At 17 I probably weighed 165-170 and was crazy skinny. 180 is pretty darn thin for me. I couldn’t gain weight until I got into my 30’s. My best weight is from 200-220 if it is all muscle. Feel like I have some serious “stopping power” at 220 but the weight slows you down a bit.
Fever, I’ve got the Sale build…. about 6’3 and I fluctuate in the 155-160 range depending if I eat like it’s Thanksgiving and pack in the food.
6ft 6 for sale @180 puts him at a 21 BMI – dead in the middle of normal range.
There’s places abroad where sale and I fit in as normal (and I’m not talking starvation regions of Africa and southeast Asia 😉 ) the US of A tends to be a bit… heavier… than the rest of the world. But back in the 70s or 80s it wasn’t as much like that
If I weigh in anywhere over 200 at a Dr appointment they give me the mandatory “you are officially overweight” printout. 200 pounds is probably about the healthiest feeling weight at this stage in my life. I can remember being 155 and tall as a teen and just not gaining weight no matter what I ate.
See you next year.
And just when the Braves were ready to make their move. That’s a shame. Ahahahahaha!
That’s yet another team that should be calling the Pirates and asking about trading for a starting pitcher. Even Skenes – but the offer must be massive.
Braves don’t have the trade ammo for Skenes. They don’t need to be buyers this year.
Getgone 2,
You’ve convinced me.
Speaking of trade ammo yesterday I traded Jacob Wilson and Merrill Kelly to get Sale and seager and I’m already having second thoughts after this news
That’s like buying a sweet looking used Ferrari but it spends the next 3 months in the shop, sad! Wilson looks like a baller, but I could justify your trade if you’re chasing a ring. Good luck!
Just for fun look at the last time the pirates won the NL Central. That would be a big 0 in the 30 plus years they been in the division the last one they one was when there was 4 not 6. Even funnier the last time they won a division the Expos were still around and even funnier the expos (not nationals) won a division more recent than the pirates.
SEASON OVER FOR BRAVES!
Time for the Braves to back up the truck and get ready for ’26.
Ivalways wish him the best as he’s a fantastic pitcher but maybe there’s a silver lining to that awful trade for Red Sox fans. This is why they traded him. I do hope he has a quick recovery; he is fun to watch.
Is that silver lining all that production y’all getting from Vaughn Grissom?
The Braves would do that trade all over again.
In all seriousness, Sale has almost certainly exceeded the expectations Atlanta has when they acquired him. Yes, this is disappointing, but it sure has been a fun ride so far.
No, it has nothing to do with Grissom but more about the fact Sale wasn’t on the field a lot in his final Red Sox days. I would gamble that move any day. Sale couldn’t literally stay on the field, Grissom was worth a shot
I disagree, if we had Sale last year we probably would’ve made the playoffs. That would’ve been worth the $10 million or whatever they saved, and all of the nothing they’ve gotten out of Vaughn Grissom.
I would have loved having Sale, and we lost the trade, but at the time he was traded, he had been constantly injured, so the gamble didn’t seem that bad. I would’ve loved to keep him, but I don’t blame Breslow for making the gamble. I agree we would be far better with him, but playoffs? I don’t know for sure
If the Braves trade one prospect trying to chase down a playoff spot then AA’s a freaking idiot.
The Braves would have to go on a 2021-esque run over the next month to be truly considered contenders. No shame in retooling for one year after making the playoffs each of the last seven seasons, including a World Series win. Stock up on bats who can help next year and get back to it.
Profar is going to save the Braves season.
To be fair, it looks like he’s actually been raking in AAA, but your joke still stands. Lol
Well, now we know why AA said a trade “will not happen”!!!
A+ post Gwynn
*hat tip*
So much for the “fire Sale”…. Amirite???
dude has some awful luck with injuries. er, bad luck.
He’s the kind of guy you can ride in the playoffs – with some help from the two Spencers. Now, it might be time to think about ’26.
Checks notes…
Hmmm. That didn’t happen last year.
rechecks notes
Oh, actually they did make the playoffs but without one of the spencers. and technically without Sale who got injured prior to his postseason start
I hate to tell you but that’s Bostons point. Sale was hurt as soon as the playoffs started. So in fact, he’s right, that didn’t happen last year.
Ever since the WS win in 21, this team has been devastated by key injuries to their stars. Mercy
The odds the Braves are sellers at the deadline just went up big time. Sadly
As a Phillies fan, I would not mind overpaying the Braves for Dylan Lee. He’s exactly what they need.
Well he did throw 8 pitches after injuring his ribcage including striking out Pete Alonzo. Warrior!
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And that’s why you trade him if your ATL. Too late now.
They were never going to trade him in June anyway. If you’re going to trade him, you wait for a bidding war to take place. Nobody has a crystal ball. Pretending like AA is somehow incompetent for not trading their most valuable asset before June 20th is ridiculous
Obviously. I meant when/if he’s healthy again. He is a great pitcher but unfortunately he’s hurt way too often and can’t be counted on.
You don’t trade Chris Sale.
Pitchers get injured, it happens. If you traded away every pitcher that was an injury risk, you wouldn’t have any pitchers. The only thing trading Sale would do is create a giant sized hole near the top of the rotation next year; that’s counterproductive.
I’m glad AA has the sense not to even consider the idea.
Well, it depends on whether a seller sees the current year as a mere down year or if they are starting a rebuild. With all the talent they have, currently injured or not, I can’t see how the Braves would rebuild, so yes the best idea was always to keep Sale for next year.
Unless you’re the Red Sox or White Sox, right?
Sale aka Glass Joe. When he’s healthy he’s one of the best. That being said said he can’t stay healthy, just like here in Boston
Glass Joe was 1-100 (1-101 after beating Title Defense on the Wii version). How is a multi-time All-Star and 1x Cy Young winner Glass Joe?
I always liked that Glass Joe was French for no apparent reason.
“Glass Joe” will still play at least as many games, if not more, in MLB between now and October 1 as Vaughn Grissom.
Snit, there was no reason for him to pitch the 9th! David Ross, how soon are you available to replace Snit?
Why was he still pitching in the 9th witn. 5 ru. Lead again? This guy has proved over and over that freak injuries and durability are a problem..including last year
He wanted to go the entire game. He’s earned the right to make that call. Came out after this though
Guess its on the manager for not protecting the player from himself..if it was cora people would calling for his job..sale is not the type to fight a manager..and no pitcher wants to come out of a game given the choice. Pedro earned it too back in 03 playoffs
How does pitching an extra inning increase the injury risk that much, especially this particular injury? The real problem is that he tried to field a ball that he should’ve let go for the other infielders.
If he’s been dominant, his pitch count is still low enough, and he isn’t showing heavy fatigue, why not go for the complete game when you have a 5-run lead?
Part of the reason IP numbers keep going down so much for starting pitchers (despite the DH in both leagues making it unnecessary to pinch-hit for them) is because managers keep taking them out after 5 or 6 innings despite pitch counts in the mid-80s for no apparent reason. Granted, there are times when managers have information we don’t, but it happens so often that it’s ridiculous. At least wait to see if the guy starts getting in trouble the third time through the order before you pull him, and your bullpens won’t be so overworked and giving up so many late runs themselves.
Not me. The team just hasn’t been good.
That is a nasty injury, that can be quite painful for quite a while
Sale heard his name brought up in trade rumors and threw himself on top of a grenade
Grab Kyle Gibson, let him eat innings rather than put needless wear and tear on the young guys. Reassess at the deadline.
@Rebuild: You mean like last year when you claimed that injuries don’t matter? Thought you were going to tell everybody here today “I told you so” that Fuentes would be sent down immediately after the game last night. Go ahead—–tell us.
Legit question..prior to the trade did Braves fans hate grissom? All I’ve seen all over this board is Braves fans saying things like “how’s grissom working for you,?” To red sox fans..or do yall just like to rub it in when something works out i your favor?..if the later..well guess karma is a B
You can go back before the trade and see my posts—and those of other Braves fans—who felt that Grissom had no chance to be a MLB middle infield starter. Poor footwork, below average arm, not enough range to play a serviceable ML SS/2B. Also saw him as nothing more than a punch and judy hitter who sells out for weak contact. Good kid, below average player. No hatred, just my opinion.
He had excellent strike zone recognition and made a lot of contact from what I recall. Like a RH Arraez with a bit more pop and comparable defensive skills(?).
He never had even close to the bat-to-ball skills of Arraez and was an absolute disaster up the middle defensively
One man’s “needless wear and tear” is another’s “giving young pitchers valuable MLB experience.” Why punt winnable games w/Kyle Gibson? Rather they take their chances w/the kids.
Unless they score more, the big league experience may be a detriment to Waldrep, Fuentes, etc. A lot of high-stress innings on young guys who probably are throwing harder than they should be anyway. Gibson pitching 5-6 innings of 4.5 ERA ball sounds better for the long-term for me. YMMV.
Depending on how well their prospects adjust to MLB hitting, they may very well punt more games with the youngsters than they would with someone like Gibson.
I think the best response for this team is to soft sell at the deadline, ie, whichever players will yield some return and are going into free agency.
They still have an immensely talented team and will be competitive for years to come, imho. AA is also still one of the best at what he does and will rebound from this year, imho.
As for Snit, I’m not sure he’s the right guy moving forward, and that very well may be the change the team needs. No question, however, that injuries have played their part in the Braves outcomes, imo.
You are the absolute KING of no context. I’m still waiting for you to back up literally anything you claim with analytical analysis. So far, over the last few weeks, the most statistics I’ve seen you use to back up your arguments is copy and pasting the standings. But you show up in every Braves post, condescending AF, acting like you’re smarter than everybody else.
Still waiting for you to backup literally any of your nonsense with analytical data while blindly attacking the credibility of everyone else. Predicting a 20 year old kid would lose his mlb debut doesn’t exactly make you a psychic.
Translation: there is no data to back up any of my claims. My “eye test” is so much more reliable than actual statistics.
Well so much for trading sake and getting a handsome return… all we can hope for now is this team to start playing how it is very capable of. As of late they have been….
Should have traded him
The window to trade Sale has now closed
This is why teams don’t want pitchers to go out of their way to play defense.
They can try to field balls that are hit mostly at or to them, and of course they have to cover first base on ground balls to the right side or occasionally back up first or third base or maybe even home plate. But otherwise, let the other infielders handle it. Pitchers shouldn’t even catch pop-ups to the mound.
It’s a brutal blow for all NL fans, since we’ve lost one of our best pitching options for the All-Star Game.
One injury doesn’t seal a season’s fate, but at this point it’s hard to see the Braves making the playoffs this year, while the Mets and Phillies will.
Second straight season we are snake bit with injuries.
Second straight season Braves have no depth.
“Brave fans won’t allow Snitker to win” … he’s sabotaging us! AA is not helping! atlallday.com/braves-manager-brian-snitker-catchin…
I’m a Braves fan and I liked Grissom, do not know what the problem is, but Grissom has all the tools to be an above average mlb player. I know one thing, sometimes it takes some people little longer to mature. I for one have not given up on Grissom, think he still puts it all together.
That’s gonna be more then 15 days
Shoulda traded him while you had the chance…..