The Redemption Arch for Chris Sale’s Career
This past week, Chris Sale received the honor of winning National League Pitcher of the Month for May. The last time Sale won this type of award was back in July 2018 when he was still on the Boston Red Sox. This marks a significant resurgence in Chris Sale’s career after being traded to the Braves this past offseason. So let’s recap the rollercoaster of Chris Sale’s career these past few years that have gotten him back to this point.
When Chris Sale arrived from the Chicago White Sox via trade to the Boston Red Sox he was lighting up the MLB. In addition to becoming an MLB All-Star in 2017 and 2018, he also helped lead the Red Sox back to the World Series in 2018 where they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games. Sale did a great job during that postseason pitching 15.3 innings and only allowed seven runs while striking out 24 batters. With the Red Sox believing they found their ace of the future, they signed him to a five-year extension for $145 million in March 2019. However, the next several years for Sale were far from good. Over the next few years, Sale would go on to post his two worst seasons of his career in terms of ERA in 2019 and 2023. As well, would suffer a series of injuries preventing him from playing most of the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Between the 2019-2023 seasons. Sale posted an overall record of 17-18 which was far from where Boston expected given his previous success. Therefore with Chris Sale’s injury history and his sharp decline, potentially due to his age, the Red Sox decided to trade the 35-year-old to the Atlanta Braves this past offseason.
Since this trade, the Braves have massively benefited from his contributions to start this season. As part of the trade, the Red Sox agreed to pay $17 million of Chris Sale’s $17.5 million contract this year, which means the Braves are only paying Sale $500,000 to play for them this season. Soon after the trade, the Braves gave Sale a new two-year, $38 million contract extension before the start of the season. Although the Braves are getting a massive discount on Sale this season thanks to the Red Sox, Chris Sale has been showing he will be worth that new contract extension after playing red hot to start the year for the Braves. This past month, Chris Sales won his fifth Pitcher of the Month award of his career after pitching 32 innings while allowing only two runs, striking out 45 batters, and winning all five games he pitched with a 0.56 ERA for May. This stretch has been an insane run for Sale, and the Braves will certainly need him to continue his greatness for the rest of this season in order to try and get back to the World Series.
