The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve signed veteran left-hander Chris Sale to a one-year, $27MM contract extension with a $30MM club option for the 2028 season. (Atlanta is one of the few teams that publicly discloses contract terms itself.) The Wasserman client was slated to reach free agency this coming winter but will instead stick with Atlanta through at least 2027.
Sale, 37 next month, is entering his late thirties but remains as effective as ever. Atlanta acquired the southpaw prior to the 2024 season in exchange for Vaughn Grissom in a deal with the Red Sox that turned out to be a coup. Since joining the organization, Sale has pitched to an otherworldly 2.46 ERA (2.84 SIERA, 2.38 FIP), with a strikeout rate of 32.2% and a walk rate of 5.9%. Those elite rate stats earned him his first career Cy Young Award in 2024, although a ribcage fracture in 2025 has limited his overall workload in Georgia to a total of 303 1/3 innings.
Injuries were the story of Sale’s career for several years prior to his arrival in Atlanta. For the first nine years of his big league tenure, the lefty was utterly elite with seven All-Star appearances and six top-five finishes in Cy Young voting for the White Sox and Red Sox.
That portion of his career ended in emphatic fashion as Sale struck out then-Dodger Manny Machado to secure the 2018 World Series for Boston, but come 2019 Sale struggled for the first time in his career. While his peripherals remained elite, he posted a pedestrian 4.40 ERA and was limited to just 25 starts due to injuries. He’d go on to make just nine starts between 2020 and 2022 before returning to the mound for most of the 2023 season with a 4.30 ERA in 20 starts.
Sale may not be a true workhorse, but he’s been more durable in recent seasons and will now look to continue the high note he’s found in Atlanta as his career begins to wind down. Both Sale himself and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos recently indicated to reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Bowman) that they hoped the remainder of the 2024 Cy Young winner’s career would be spent in Atlanta, and now he’ll remain under club control until the end of his age-39 campaign. Sale told reporters (including Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) after news of the extension broke this morning that the deal came together quickly after those comments were made early in camp.
“[Anthopoulos] said what he said, I said what I said, and we just kind of looked at each other like, ‘Are we serious?'” Sale said, as relayed by Bishop. “And I called [my agent] and was like ‘Hey, call Alex, figure something out.’ You know, we made our pitch, they made their pitch, and we just kind of met in the middle. I mean, I feel like this was [done in] like, a week.”
Sale will be looking to not only put the finishing touches on a compelling Hall of Fame case but also lead the Braves back into the postseason after a rough 2025 season. He’s the undisputed ace of an Atlanta staff that looks very intimidating when at full strength but now figures to enter the season without either Spencer Schwellenbach or Hurston Waldrep. Both young righties had surgery to remove bone spurs/loose bodies from their right elbows earlier this month, and neither has a clear timetable for his return.
Instead, Sale will be joined by Spencer Strider, Grant Holmes, and Reynaldo Lopez in the rotation as things stand, with a handful of depth arms in competition for the fifth starter job. It’s a group that could clearly use an additional quality arm, but it remains to be seen if Anthopoulos will manage to add someone like that to the mix before the season begins. Whatever may happen with the rotation in 2025, however, the Braves can now move forward with the assurance that one of the game’s most elite hurlers will be staying in town for the foreseeable future.
From a payroll vantage point, there doesn’t appear to be any immediate impact on the 2026 season. The contract is structured as a new deal beginning in 2027, so it doesn’t change Atlanta’s baseline cash payroll or its luxury tax payroll for the upcoming season.
Sale’s deal does tack on $27MM of luxury considerations to the 2027 budget, although the Braves already had substantial money coming off the books at season’s end. Ha-Seong Kim ($20MM), Raisel Iglesias ($16MM), Joe Jimenez ($9MM), Aaron Bummer ($9.5MM), Mauricio Dubón ($6.1MM), Jonah Heim ($1.25MM) and Jorge Mateo ($1MM) are all free agents at season’s end, and the only notable arbitration raise Atlanta faces will be Schwellenbach’s first trip through the process. As things stand, RosterResource projects a $176MM luxury payroll for Atlanta in 2027 — about $84MM shy of their current mark.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the extension and the 2027 salary.
That’s a gamble. High risk, high reward move. Sale could just sink, but if he doesn’t he can be really good. Nice move by the Braves.
There’s no such thing as a bad ____________________ .
a) president
b) spouse
c) new car
d) one year deal
A-C not so sure, haha, but I’m happy if we’re not going to get any additional starters, we at least extended a current one. Nice bit of news this am.
Seriously?
For anyone out of Detroit, the answer is definitely not C. lol
Cole Hamels
Sigh…Hamels was signed for 2020 season — and that 18M contract was reduced to about ~6M. If that’s AA’s worst, I’ll take it.
Covid kinda reduced the hit of the Cole Hamels deal so it was only a 6m hit really
I really wanted to see Hamels, Felix, and Bartolo get real time in our rotation… not all at the same time of course! 🙂
@pale
I’d love to have all three in my rotation, provided it was 2012-2013. With that rotation, King Felix may have actually been in a playoff game!
Whether or not there are any bad 1-year deals, this is now a 2-year deal with a team option for a 3rd year.
new car.
e) Ted Turner in uniform, in the dugout, managing the team.
Astros – While every contract is a gamble, there are always different degrees of risk. This is absolutely a low risk gamble as long as he stays healthy. He has been spectacular with the Braves the past couple years, and he’s only 37 with low mileage on his arm because of all the time he missed in Boston.
If Breslow doesn’t win a championship with the Sox, he will be forever remembered for possibly the worst trade in MLB history (Babe Ruth was really a sale, not a trade).
Hey, Breslow isn’t the one who traded Mookoe Betts for peanuts 😛
Meow – True! But at least Bloom got something out of Mookie (Wong, Verdugo/Fitts, Price contract dump).
All that Breslow got out of Sale is 30 crappy games from Grissom and a lottery ticket that hasn’t gotten past A ball yet.
Eh, if they’d kept Sale for 2024, even assuming he matched his performance with Atlanta (which I don’t take for a given), the Sox probably still don’t make the playoffs that year, and they wouldn’t have made it very far if they did, with Sale injured *yet again*. He would’ve left at the end of the season for no compensation.
Meow – I know Atlanta is much better with pitchers than the Red Sox are, but Sale didn’t need their help with pitching …. he just needed good health, which he finally got in 2024 (until the very end).
Would the Sox have made the playoffs in 2020-2023 with Mookie and Price? Probably not.
Red Sox had a $20M option on him for last season.
It’s the return for the Sale trade that gets me. I’m ok with the idea that a new CBO comes in, there’s a lot of work to do with the team, Sale is in his walk year and he’s been hurt, so trade him to get some value back for him.
I can only imagine what the headline would have been jn 2024 – Chris Sale, the MLB ERA leader through the first two and a half months, breaks two fingers on his left hand high fiving Wally after Sale pitched 6 scoreless innings against the Yankees. He’s expected to be out 4-8 weeks.
But paying his entire salary (at least I think it was the whole salary, 17MM or whatever) and only getting Vaughn Grissom back was a horrible trade. Considering the state of the Red Sox farm system at the time, which was loaded with MI prospects, why tack on another? Why not get something the farm system severely lacked, which was pitching prospects.
Sox might’ve had a better shot taking down the Yankees last off-season if they’d kept Mookie around. I know I’m a broken record but Sox FO should’ve done whatever it would’ve taken to make him a lifetime Red Sox. They could’ve beat 12/360.
Meow – I’m with you 100% on Mookie, although last year was a rare down year for him. It was the first full season of his career where he didn’t get MVP votes.
I remember at the time the Sale trade was announced, which was also just before he reworked his deal with them to lock in last season, Sale had said he was seriously thinking about retiring after 2024 would wrap up.
GaSox – I guess you could say he “had interest” in retirement, much like the Red Sox “had interest” in nearly every big name free agent. Ultimately, it was never in serious consideration.
I can certainly understand why he felt that way though, he probably thought the big man was telling him something with all the crazy injuries. Depression had probably set in.
I really wish everyone would stop talking about the past so much though. We have live baseball games to talk about now, and the Sox could have one of the best starting rotations and best outfields in MLB.
Contreras hit his first Red Sox homerun, opposite field.
Abreu did something I think only one other Sox player (Rice) has ever done, broke his bat on a check swing.
Duran is off to a sizzling start, but I don’t like him hitting 3rd.
Today’s lineup will probably be the primary regular season lineup, except with Mayer and Narvaez instead of Wong and IKF.
Cora will have his dream come true. L/R/L/R/L/R/L/R for 1-8 in the lineup.
Story hitting 2nd is ridiculous, yeah he’s got speed but his OBP is not that good.
Griffin looks like a beast, hopefully the Pirates will have him and Skenes together for at least a couple years.
Looking forward to see what Oviedo has tomorrow.
Red Sox are giving away free Crochet jerseys to whomever buys a ticket for a game at Fenway in April, good deal.
But are the ‘free crochet jerseys’ actual replica jerseys, or cheap screenprinted Haynes white-ts? And are they ‘free’ or do they jack up the ticket price $80?
Why do I ask? Ive seen BOTH happen with ‘free’ promotions
GaSox – I don’t know, they play around with terminology just like they play around with numbers. All it says is City Connect replica jersey, only XL which is ridiculous.
I was in the Fenway merchandise store a few months ago, they had tons of home white jerseys for sale but every single one had a player’s name on the back along with their number.
Are those considered “replica”? Drives me crazy (and for me it’s a short drive) considering the actual players don’t have their names on their home white jerseys.
By definition a modern baseball jersey has to be button down, so I would think/hope these giveaways are button down.
Interesting bit of trivia, who is the only former Red Sox player to wear #69 at some point in their MLB career?
Bronson Arroyo, who wore it with the Pirates. He requested it when he was selected off waivers by the Sox, but they refused to issue it.
So the answer to my first trivia question is who was the first Japanese player to play in the majors answer Masinori Murakami for the 1964-65 SF Giants he was a relief pitcher he was in a total of 45 games including 1 start the answer to my second trivia question was can you name at least 7 pitchers past or present whose last name begins with the letter V answer justin Verlander Pete vuckovich Todd Van Poppel jose valverde Austin voth javier Vazquez frank viola and 8 others
I know the Red Sox have given away some elite players but the Reds giving Frank Robinson away for Milt Pappas and spare parts has to be the next worst trade behind Babe Ruth. If not that the Cubs giving away Lou Brock.
Jeez .those two trades were over 60 years ago. Isn’t there some sort of a statute of limitations on bad trades???
Gamble, but nice move? Yeah I’ll go with the latter. Sale to me seems like a pitcher that figured out how to pitch to his age and body. He’s been great.
Good deal for sale. Love to see him securing the future even when it’s just a year or two
It’s been a pretty remarkable turn around. He went from pitching 150 innings over 4 years (2020-2023) to winning his 1st CY award in 2024.
His HOF case is definitely getting a lot stronger.
100%. So glad that he seems to be past the utter rash of injuries (many of which were pretty flukey). Plus, he seems to be enjoying being in Atlanta with the way he’s doing these deals, and that’s always good to see for a player who age is getting up there. Hope he finishes his career strong!
Honestly, as long as he can continue being a good pitcher throughout the twilight of his career, he has the HOF on lockdown. Right now, there are only 3 pitchers not in the HOF with 2500+ K’s, at least 50 bWAR, and a 140 or better ERA+. It’s Roger Clemens, Clayton Kershaw, and Sale.
mlb – Sale could retire today and he’d be a HOF’er.
He compares to Sandy Koufax, he actually beats Koufax in WAR and ERA+ by a lot. Not to mention more K’s, much better WHIP and K/BB%.
Dude..I saw Koufax pitch. Sale is no Koufax. Only reason Sale compiled more WAR and K’s is Koufax retired at age 30. Koufax is the most dominant pitcher I’ve ever seen and it’s not close.
To be fair, Koufax never really had a decline because of his arm injuries, and he was pretty average for the first 5-6 years of his career. Sale was dominant from the start and has a chance to age gracefully.
That’s fair ..Koufax didn’t get figure things out until he was 25. But there’s dominant(6-7 WAR/ year) and then there’s Koufax dominant(7-11 WAR/year).
rule – No offense to Mr. Koufax, but 1963-1966 was the Second Deadball era. Lots of pitchers were as dominant if not more. Check out what Bob Gibson did in 1968.
And BR actually uses Koufax as a comp for Sale.
mlb – Yeah I don’t see how anyone old enough to remember Pedro in 2000 could say someone else was more dominant.
That year AL starters averaged a 5.09 ERA
Pedro had a 1.74 ERA
Koufax pitched against significantly fewer teams and never once had to face a DH as that wasn’t even a thing until years after he retired. It’s entirely possible that if he were active today he could hang with the best of them but it’s hard to tell. Similarly if you plug Sale into the 1960s he probably racks up a few sub-2.00 ERA years.
I love the deal.. especially since ’28 is just a team option. Guaranteeing $30mm for a 39 year old Chris Sale would have made me very nervous. $27mm for his 38 year old season is juuuust enough risk for me. We needed to lock down an ace and we got him.
In this market that’s a Sale price.
I see what you did there!
At least they didn’t say no Sale.
Cap – Still one of my all-time favorite baseball commercials.
youtu.be/y2Qs9eQWDeM?si=jCUTsoNw0ff41FKS
I got a nice chuckle out of that
LFG! Good deal for Atlanta. As long as his health stays good.
They might regret that.
Or we might not, any signing can go wrong that’s over 15m
He’s been unreal in Atlanta at this age. There’s always the injury risk but his only one he’s had here was a fluke cracked rib.
braves – I agree with you, but the cracked rib wasn’t a fluke …. it was the second time in 3 years it happened.
Depends on what you mean by fluke I guess. It was on a diving play which he probably wouldn’t have made had he known the outcome me thinks.
youtube.com/watch?v=PvCQrfMYKfI
1:06 timestamp
Roses – I am aware. The first time he cracked a rib was when simply throwing a pitch, now THAT is a fluke. However it made him somewhat susceptible to future rib injuries, which likely contributed to the second rib injury. If a hitter bunts the ball in the air a few feet in front of him and he’s in the best position to catch it, he will go for it every time. Just natural instincts.
I still say the White Sox should’ve kept him in the bullpen.
That is a distant flashback. Did you post that on here way back in the day?
I laugh at some of the stuff I post sometimes when I review it years later. Of course we all remember the ‘just like I said’ moments, but it’s more fun looking back at the misses.
the Red Sox did well with him in the pen, closing out the ’18 Series by striking out Justin Turner, Kike, and Machado.
Why? It’s a year at the least
If he has a cy young season or anything close to one he’s looking at a way larger contract.
I’m glad they FINALLY signed a SP this offseason…..
More like Chris Gouge
That’s a fair price. If he hadn’t had a fluke rib injury he would have been in the Cy Young conversation.
Nah
Salty Sawx Fan
lol why would I be salty? Sale was great for the Sox in 17/18 and won us a trophy. The good far outweighed the bad.
Absolutely a solid price for a guy with his stats. Not a gouge — more than fair in modern baseball. Braves didn’t HAVE to extend him, it’s their choice.
Bro it’s a joke.
Bro, do better.
Assume Strider velocity still down. Otherwise may not make this deal as he would be clear number 1.
So far in the early going, Strider has been hitting 95 and topping out at 98 on his fastball
I don’t see how they are related.
Sale’s second cousin was Strider’s babysitter’s notary public.
Strider is not a #1. His best full year as a starter resulted in a 3.86 ERA and a hurt arm. His career ERA as a starter is 3.82.
Yes, he is fun to watch, but even if he were fully healthy right now, he should be consider an SP3, looking to become an SP2. People are so in love with his power they don’t notice that he rarely goes six innings, struggles against hitters with discipline, and is seriously lacking secondary offerings. He will be around 27.5 years old when they season starts, so the inevitable slow-down of time will also start hitting him soon.
If Stider can get back to what he was in 2022-2023 that would be amazing, total beast:
He pitched 318 innings, batters hit a measly .198/.269/.318 off him striking out a ridiculous 37.4% of the time.
For comparission this is what the top starters did in 2025:
Skubal, .200/.240/.319, 32.2 k%
Crochet, .217/.264/.353, 31.3 k%
I also find it weird as hell to be talking about Strider going to be 27 and going to slow down soon due to age in a post about Sale signing a 1 year extension for his age 38 season. Heck, Sale hasn’t thrown 180 innings in 9 years and 29 other teams would love to have him.
Sounds like an SP1 to me.
padrepapi
5 hours ago
If Stider can get back to what he was in 2022-2023 that would be amazing, total beast:
___________________________________
If Strider returns to his 2022-23 form and Sale stays healthy in 2026, Sale and Strider would be a formidable starting duo.
Teams don’t obsess with SP hierarchy; they care about having pitching they’re confident in. With or without Strider doing well, Sale as he’s been recently looks very worth this; likewise, even Sale at his best is far from enough to make a pitching staff, and Strider would ideally do well as part of that too.
I would love to see the language of the contract with the lockout looming. Wondering if they are allowed to put in guaranteed money even in case of no baseball.
He’s been really effective deep into his thirties—-I’m guessing he still would have gotten a pretty healthy deal in free agency.
The only way that works is if it cuts both ways..he gets paid if locked out ..but he ALSO agrees to cross the union line and play if the players strike.
I think they can do silly stuff like “$60M signing bonus and $1M each year”. Who knows, MLB is an accountants game.
Mike- the contract can be monetarily structured however both parties agree to.
Gwynn..dont forget typically the mlbpa needs to approve or at least not have a problem with the contract as well so anything unfair to other members ie getting paid during a lock out or strike when others arent may be frowned upon
That said..the team could just make it all a signing bonus essentially guaranteeing the money but there are likely issues there like no insurance coverage etc..plus luxury tax ramifications
Correct Phj! All contracts must be ratified by The League FO as well. I don’t think anybody would blink at a deferral payment(s) plan. But no, I don’t believe a “guarantee” for “no games” in ’27 clause would fly, period.
The epytome of a stopper.
Yeah , he stops his car at the urgent care often enough.
Close!
I like this extension.
Nice trade Breslow
For a season that won’t happen.
Nice lil Club Option for ’28 though! Savvy deal, works for both parties. I like it!
LFGSD
I knew Sale has had a great career, but to be honest I hadn’t thought of him as a HoF candidate until now. And I see it, especially based on the watered down Hall we have, which should mean he is a.lock. I also hadn’t looked at how remarkable his career K’s to BB’s have been. I realize Sale is a big injury risk, but 27M is a bargain if he’s healthy.
In my book he’s hall of very good. But so are about half of the recent inductees and he’s been way better than a good chunk of the recent HOVG players who made it in
Marcus – Sorry but your book needs work ;O)
7 consecutive years of finishing Top 6 for Cy Young (8 overall)
4 consecutive years of MVP votes (5 overall)
Best K/BB in MLB history (unless deGrom passed him last year)
When you dominate for nearly a decade, you’re a HOF’er.
Is top 6 really “dominant”?
Lunch – Out of 436 pitchers? Yes, absolutely.
What other pitchers have done that for at least 7 consecutive years?
@Fever: “When you dominate for nearly a decade, you’re a HOF’er.” Unless you’re Dale Murphy—and a few others who are damned by those who invoke their “but they only belong in the Hall of Very Good” analysis (wherever that is.)
“half of the recent inductees”
Don’t you mean half of the inductees in the history of baseball prior to recent years. So many got in that did not belong back in the middle of last century. They got carried away with playing ‘catch-up’.
We crap on the hall for playing ‘catch up’ with all the recent inductees not having 3K hits, 500+ HRs, 300+ Ws, and so forth, but yet waaaayyyy back in the 70s they voted the late Bill Mazeroski in. He was a great fielder and had some clutch moments but his baseball card stats and WAR totals are nowhere close to HoF worthy. So, really, why should we even care who gets inducted? If a player is really good on the field and isn’t a jerk off the field then let him in!
MarcusUnger, Andy Pettitte is inching his way from HOVG to HOF with his 117 career OPS+ (and that’s with his bogus 2005 giving a little boost) and mere 3 ASs despite being on the Yankees.
Even as he left Boston, Sale had a 137 ERA+ with 7 fully legit ASs, and he’s since added 2 more and improved his ERA+ to 141. Barring a big swing back to health issues, he’ll soon pass Koufax in career IP (so not boxed out on a volume basis), and for all his excellence Koufax “only” had a career 131 OPS+.
If he can keep the quality up, he can even finish with a sub-3.00 raw career ERA, which looks pretty excellent in any context, no?
He’s always been fully excellent; he was just lacking in some of the desired volume due to all that missed time from age 29 through 34. Now that he’s making up for that, he has enough volume and definitely the quality one looks for from a HOFer.
With the state of pitching in the modern game, voters will have to completely change their criteria or else we will never get another starting pitcher in again after Kershaw, Verlander, and Mad Max. I think if he can win another Cy Young or win a World Series, he’s a lock.
Defeat – That is why for HOF consideration I value awards. You can’t compare stats from different generations because the game does change, therefore how a player performs compared to his peers takes on more value.
Of course you can compare different eras using stats. The + stats are all adjusted for era and ballparks. Now if you want to argue that the pre-integration era players played against lesser competition then you have a point. Especially the farther back in time you go. But it’s no problem to use advanced metrics to compare today’s players with guys who played in, say, the 1960’s or 1970’s.
Hank – I was thinking more along the line of starting pitchers averaging 5-6 innings, hitters having to face 1-inning max velo relievers after the 6th, pitchers not hitting anymore, rule changes to make stealing easier, etc.
Everyone says the HOF is getting watered down, but this isn’t true at all. Time and time again, it’s proven that it’s harder than ever to get into the HOF.
They gotta get there first. I really don’t think he’s the type that would sit there quietly on the bench watching the team lose without taking the matters into his own hands. Even at the expense of a few broken LCDs.
Yep. That is just one of the luxuries of the high payroll for the Dodgers. They may only win a few more games than the next best team in the regular season, but they will get to rest their players far more often than other clubs.
They’ve extended the Sale at Penney’s!
Thanks Johnny.
Officially removes them from next offseason’s Skubal bidding.
Braves were never going to be involved in the Skubal market!
They don’t shop in that aisle. Not a criticism, not a complaint, simply an observation.
Even Ted Turner in his most free-spending moments wouldn’t be bidding on Skubal.
We signed Greg Maddux in his prime, under Ted
Makes the return that much better when he’s traded at deadline
Very solid take. As a Braves fan I hope that doesn’t happen, but it could certainly come in to play.
Kind of hope Sale just wants to stay a Brave and they want to keep him, but if he wants to go after another Ring and the Braves implode offensively again, then blow it up.
Find it sad that everyone is going on and on about the Braves needing SPs, but that was probably an area of strength last year … even with Elder starting all those games.
They’re not gonna trade a guy they just gave two years to no matter what they look like at the deadline unless they’re getting some serious return for it. The Braves don’t have enough reliable arms to trade away Major League pitching. The only players I can imagine them dealing are Murphy and Profar (if someone would take him).
If the Braves are out of it he will be traded and they will get a haul. Book it
Like to book that w/you. AA doesn’t trade players that he’s recently signed to extensions. His words. Book that.
No, he won’t be traded.
We’ll see at the deadline,especially when that staff is in shambles by then..book it lmao
You should book it—-if you hate money. You won’t be back after the deadline to admit that you were wrong though, will you.
Define “out of it”…
And if they hit that threshold:
You win $50 if Sale is traded
I win $25 if Sale is not traded
Deal?
Hope it doesn’t happen but if so may as well deal Acuña as well with two years of control left. Could make it a very quick rebuild. If both Sale and Acuña are healthy and producing AA would be the ‘belle at the ball’ at the trade deadline.
“that was probably an area of strength last year”
We had the entire starting rotation on the IL for a significant amount of time last year.
Braves manager Walt Weiss said Sale has “zero diva” in him. I chuckled at this because Sale once cut up all the throwback White Sox jerseys because he didn’t want to wear them when he was pitching. I guess he’s matured in the last few years.
As a White Sox fan, that’s definitely one of the funniest things I’ve seen a player do lol
He has come a long way from those days.
Maybe he returns one day to finish his career in Chicago, with big brother Ronald Jr tagging along in the motorcycle sidecar
Love it. Sale has been better than we could have dreamed. Keep renewing him every 2 years until his arm falls off. Gotta be one of the top 5 trades in Atlanta Braves history.
Now do Ronnie!
Ronnie Belliard???
It’s difficult to fault a player for accepting $100M, but Acuña’s agent should have been sued for malpractice. What a screaming deal for the Braves.
At the time it was signed, the $ amount of the Acuna deal was the largest in MLB history for a player his age and service class.
It’s a bird in the hand situation. I think in hindsight Acuna is glad he took the extension because he’s had two torn ACLs since he signed. $100M is generational wealth no matter how you slice it. It’s a gamble for players to not take the security a contract extension provides, even if it’s a very team friendly deal for a player of Acuna’s caliber. Sure, he could have said no, and either negotiated a larger contract or chose to bet on himself in arbitration/free agency, but what if he still blew out his knees anyway? He would have had to settle for less money via arbitration, or maybe he gets nontendered entirely.
They lost over 90 games last year, they need every arm making their starts this season to get back there.
The Braves were 76-86 in 2025. Your point about their arms is valid though.
For any Braves fans wondering about the TV deal:
mlb.com/braves/schedule/watch?partnerId=it-2026022…
Arggghhh, I wanted to click it but I’m not a Braves fan! Summary?
Gwynning,
I (also a non-Braves fan) clicked and survived to tell the tale, so I think you’ll be safe.
Whoa calm down there ya rebel you…
🤙🏽
For those wary of posted links, you can navigate to the Braves page on MLB.com. The info is there. That’s where the link points.
Why does Sale seem to be, like, terrified of free agency?
I wonder if Sale refused to pitch without an extension. Such a huge risk adding another year.
Refused to pitch? In other words, was ready to forfeit his salary? I don’t think so.
Why would he “refuse to pitch?” Is being suspended without pay much better?
And curious why he would specifically “need” an extension. There isn’t a team in baseball that wouldn’t want Sale on it.
Ah, guess you’re forgetting about the two recent years he pitched 42 innings in 1 and 5 in another….and last year was 125…..he’s 37 and while he has had a great career, there area a bunch off teams who wouldn’t want to pay him what the Braves just signed up to pay him….the probability that an oft injured pitcher at 37 might go down increases every day he ages…..he ain’t Nolan Ryan…..
Lol. No. Bringing up the fact that he was injured like 4 years ago after he returned to form the last 3 years is ridiculous. Chris Sale is not the type of player who would get hosed in free agency. Deal with it.
Players like stability, just as anyone does. He saw the Braves give Morton a classy send-off, and wanted to remain a part of the team. Obviously the Braves and their fans wanted to keep him. It works for everyone involved.
He would have gotten his “stability” anyway. Future Hall of Famers coming off 4 WAR seasons don’t get hosed in FA.
They like to have multiple years in one location. This is peace of mind.
Could have stayed in ATL and likely for more money if he waited out the open market. Smart GMs like Alex Anthopoulos don’t bring their best offer to the table when they have the captive market.
Anthopoulos doesn’t usually shop on the open market for his own players. Cases in point, Fried and Swanson. The open market priced them out of his comfort zone.
bhambrave
7 hours ago
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Just like Freddie Freeman.
However, I think Matt Olson turned out to be a successful replacement for Freeman, and signing him after the trade was a very good deal for the Braves.
He’s already fulfilled that contract over four seasons with the Braves.
Thanks Bogey, that’s exactly my point. Freddie was a special case (because, it’s Freddie), but an example of AA going against his norm and bidding on his own FA, and it not working out. FWIW, I think they might have eventually worked it out except for the lockout. Trading for Matt and extending him is classic AA.
He’s not going to reduce his offer once Sale touches FA. Lol. Worst case scenario it stays the same.
Worst case scenario for the Braves is that someone else would offer more, and Sale wouldn’t stay a Brave.
Yes and Sale has no reason to deprive that “someone eles” of the right to do that. Like I said, the Braves aren’t going to reduce their offer if he makes it to FA.
You’re arguing in circles. Sale wanted stability and the Braves gave him that. The Braves wanted certainty and Sale gave them that. They both got what they wanted. He could have gotten more on the open market, but he prioritized something else. Good for him. And them.
He would have gotten stability no matter what. He’s a future Hall of Famer. Those guys don’t get hosed in free agency. The Braves would have offered him at least the same dollar figure and possibly more if he waited out free agency. That’s all I’m saying and so many people get triggered it’s insane!
Stability is staying multiple more years in the place that he’s been. Leaving for a bigger contract is not stability.
1. No it’s staying multiple years in one place for good money.
2. He could have done that as a free agent. The Braves aren’t going to take that contract off the table if he doesn’t sign it right this second.
How do you know? They took Freddie’s offer off the table.
No they didn’t. His agent lied to him. Freddie had beef with Acuna anyway.
It’s underrated how much trading with the Red Sox is a good idea for other teams
They’ve won four World Series championships since 2004. They aren’t going to win every trade but at least they make the big moves. Most teams’ fans just want one ring. Beats some ownership groups sitting on their hands.
Remember when the league said Georgia was racist and refused to let them play the All Star game there… then the Braves turned around and won the World Series. LOL, good times… good times.
Yes, and why were the Fulton County voting records seized by the Guest Oppo? Hmmm.
Plenty of fingers to point in this sad sack of a country, the States of America, no longer United.
Melchez
Don’t see how those two things are at all related.
Reminds me of when the only team that said no to a pride night in 2023 was the Texas Rangers.
Yeah, they took the A-S game from a state that’s about 32% black (costing small black-owned businesses about $100M) and gave it to a state that’s about 5% black, and then gave it back to Atlanta four years later even though nothing had changed about the law (which was actually very similar to the laws in New York).
Ridiculous
Good deal for both sides and good deal for Braves fans as they want a competitive team going forward.
Great news! I thought the Braves really needed to do this, and they would be unsuccessful as they have been with Freddie, Dansby, etc.
Pretty much everybody signed long term
Plenty of money to get an Acuna extension fone in the future
I don’t think they’ll re-sign Acuna. He’ll be 31 going into his FA year, and my prediction is they won’t offer more than a six year deal. Someone else will give him 10 years.
That “someone else” might be the Mets.
As to Sale, the surprising thing is he hasn’t found a new agent now that Wasserman’s head honcho has been outed as a Ghislaine Maxwell fanboy.
I don’t see any way the Braves will re-sign Acuña. He’s been playing on a below value contract for 5-6 years now so he’s going to want to make up for that so a team friendly deal is off the table. He’s gonna get PAID! The only question is do the Braves play out his remaining 3 years and lose him for a draft pick or do they trade him next off season for a HAUL of talent. Tough call.
Is the comment notification working for everyone? The bell keeps showing me that there are new responses/likes, but when I click on it, all I see are older notifications that still show “red” even after I click on them. Not showing the newer ones at all. Logged out and back in, but no change. Wonder if something happened to the system after the overnight changes.
Mine is screwed up too. Has been wrong all day.
I dunno. I’ve seen some different themes experimented lately.
My only guess is you muted the comment authors or the authors of the comments the new ones were replying to. But only you would know the answer to that.
@Juran: If you’re replying to me, your guess is incorrect. I don’t mute anyone here. Never have, never will. I was referring to the notification alerts that show red when a new reply to a comment is made. The alerts have been messed up since the changes made by MLBTR 2 days ago.
yikes. talk about risky… a late 30s pitcher with rib issues and ya throw $27 Million at him, hoping he pitches 70% more than last year, or 80% if you want him to make it through the playoffs uninjured when it counts the most after a longggggg season…
okay, then. you do you, Atlanta owners! 🙂
“rib issues”. He broke two ribs diving for a ball in June, came back at the end of August and pitched better down the stretch than he did in the first half.
So much for “rib issues”.
I wonder which cap Sale will choose in Cooperstown – Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox or Atlanta Braves?
Probably Red Sox, unless the Braves win a World Series.
Free agency is going to be rough. There goes another good player. Not going to be much to choose from.
Jays – You can have Sonny Gray next offseason. Who knows, maybe Giolito and Littell will still be available next offseason too.
Hes like a fine wine that gets better with age. Sale on Saler!
His WHIP the past 4 seasons is outstanding
Fine enough but would he want to leave Atlanta as a free agent and would other teams be lining up to give a 38 year old 30 million. Good to take care of your own be nice and all. Hopefully he repays their generosity and stays good and healthy.
@AI GM — he’s making 18M this year after signing an extension shortly after being acquired by ATL. No doubt this is, in part, thanks from ATL for doing that. He’s among the 53rd (I believe) highest-paid players in ’26, while most likely going to be one of the best SPs (when healthy), which is also the most expensive position in the FA market.
Lol with “generosity”. It’s business and their extension offer to Sale was self-serving.
Verlander signed a 2/86.7M contract with NYM going into his age-40 season that also inc. a 35M vesting option for 140 IP — coming off a ’22 Cy Young-winning season.
Sure, that’s an exception, but we’ve already seen Sale take home a pitching Triple Crown/Cy Young season, and based on ’25 results, he could pull that off again. IF he did and reaches FA, a bad agent can argue that this type of contract is a blueprint.
With Sale’s 27M extension (with 30M option) – that’s now not possible. So, 27M guaranteed OR 86.7M guaranteed (not inc. vesting option)?
That’s a lot of money to be throwing around for what you consider a “self-serving” move. To me a self-serving move would’ve been to capitalize on him being awesome of late, and pocket that money next year while instead bringing up some rookie who *might* be as good for the league minimum.
Do you think season ticket-holders are more likely to renew with Sale or with a rookie getting his feet wet? It’s a calculated decision to extend Sale is what I’m saying.
Here are the names of the other 8 pitchers whose last name begins with the letter V ryan vogelsong vitor vodnik Anthony varvaro Oscar Villarreal Felipe Vazquez framber valdes alex vesia Louis varland
Happy for you Sale, keep rolling in ATL. Thanks for that title in BOS!
Yeah? Yeah? Well, Vaughn Grissom is signed through 2030. So there!
Can Atlanta get insurance on that extension?
29 comments are hidden because you muted the comment authors.
The nost obvious future PED suspension incoming lol.
Most obvious ignorant comment.
Sale is fun to watch. His rail thin body and whiplike delivery uncorks some filthy stuff that dances across the plate with pinpoint precision. When healthy he is arguably one of the top 5 or so starting pitchers in MLB, despite being in the twilight years of his career.
However, it is also true that he’s a brittle bag of bones that has had an assortment of creative and sometimes bewildering injuries throughout his career, and there is a high likelihood he will be injured again. This is a man who once broke his foot from stepping out of his pickup truck in his own driveway and in separate other incidents, rode a bike halfway around the block in his neighborhood just one time and immediately crashed and broke his wrist, and also broke a rib while practicing his delivery in spring training. Not to mention back, head, shoulder, knee, elbow, and finger injuries that happened in games. And this was all before he even set foot in Atlanta. It’s a very safe bet that he will have additional new injuries again in 2026