The Braves announced Tuesday that they have signed the veteran left fielder Chris Sale one-year, $27MM contract extension with a $30MM club option for the 2028 season. (Atlanta is one of the few teams to publicly disclose the terms of its own contract.) Wasserman’s client was scheduled to reach free agency this coming winter but will stick with Atlanta at least through 2027.
Sale, 37 next month, is about to turn 30 but is still as active as ever. Atlanta acquired the southpaw before the 2024 season in exchange Vaughn Grissom in a deal with the Red Sox that turned out to be a coup. Since joining the organization, Sale has pitched to a 2.46 ERA (2.84 SIERA, 2.38 FIP), with a 32.2% strikeout rate and a 5.9% walk rate. Those career-high numbers earned him his first career Cy Young Award in 2024, though a ribcage fracture in 2025 limited his career total at Georgia to 303 1/3 innings.
Injuries were the story of Sale’s career for several years prior to his arrival in Atlanta. In the first nine years of his major league tenure, the lefty was prolific with seven All-Star appearances and six top five Cy Young votes for the White Sox and Red Sox.
That part of his career ended in spectacular fashion as Sale started for the Dodgers at the time Manny Machado defending the 2018 World Series for Boston, but in 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 25 starts due to injury. He would 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 has been very solid in recent seasons and will now look to continue the high note he earned in Atlanta as his career begins to wind down. Both Sale himself and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos recently indicated to reporters (including Mark Bowman of MLB.com) that they hope the remainder of the 2024 Cy Young winner’s career will be spent in Atlanta, and he will now remain under club control until the end of his 39-year 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 that morning in camp.
“[Anthopoulos] he said what he said, I said what I said, and we just looked at each other like, ‘Are we serious?'” Said Sale, as he was passed by the Bishop. “Then I called [my agent] and it was like ‘Hey, call Alex, get something.’ You know, we made our pitch, they made their pitch, and we just met in the middle. I mean, I feel like it was [done in] well, a week.”
Sale will be looking to not only complete a compelling Hall of Fame offense but also lead the Braves back to the postseason in 2025. He is the undisputed ace of Atlanta’s pitching staff who looks very intimidating at full strength but will now be able to enter the season with nothing else. Spencer Schwellenbach or Hurston Waldrep. Both young righties underwent surgery to remove bone spurs/loose bodies from their right elbows earlier this month, and neither has a clear timeline for their return.
Instead, sales will be joined by Spencer Strider, Grant Holmesagain Reynaldo Lopez in the exchange as things stand, with a few hands deep in the competition for the fifth starting job. It’s a team that could clearly use an extra quality arm, but it remains to be seen if Anthopoulos will be able to add such a person to the mix before the season begins. Whatever happens around 2025, however, the Braves can now move forward with the assurance that one of their best pitchers will remain in town for the foreseeable future.
Coming from the pay zone, there doesn’t seem to be any immediate impact on the 2026 season. The contract is structured as a new deal that starts in 2027, so it doesn’t change Atlanta’s starting salary or its luxury tax for next season.
The trade deal touches on $27MM of cap space considerations through 2027, though the Braves already have plenty of cash coming off the books at the end of the season. 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 the end of the season, and the only notable reliever Atlanta faces will be Schwellenbach’s first trip in the process. As things stand, RosterResource projects Atlanta’s luxury payroll to be $176MM in 2027 – about $84MM shy of its current mark.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the extension and 2027 salary.
