The Atlanta Braves didn’t waste much time locking up Chris Sale. They signed the veteran left-hander to a two-year, $38 million contract with an $18 million club option for 2026. The extension came just five days after the Braves traded for Sale, 34, who had one year plus a 2025 option left on his previous contract from the Boston Red Sox.
The new deal supersedes the old one, with Sale making $16 million in 2024 and $22 million in 2025. Under the previous contract, he would’ve made $27.5 million in 2024 — the Braves would’ve paid $500,000 in 2024 plus $10 million deferred to 2039, and the Red Sox were covering $17 million as part of the trade that sent infielder Vaughn Grissom to Boston.
The new contract eliminates the $10 million deferral, but the Braves still get the $17 million from Boston, which covers his entire 2024 salary plus $1 million. There is no buyout of the 2026 club option. Atlanta will essentially pay him $21 million for two seasons, with the other $17 million of the $38 million deal coming from Boston.
The move gives Sale more guaranteed money over the next two seasons since his previous contract guaranteed him only $27.5 million in 2024 with $10 million deferred to 2039, while the new deal pays $38 million over two seasons plus an $18 million club option for 2026 with no buyout.
GO DEEPER
Rosenthal: Why the Braves concluded Chris Sale is worth the risk
Sale is a seven-time All-Star who’s struggled with various injuries over the past four seasons, including Tommy John surgery that forced him to miss all of 2020 and part of 2021. He has made just 31 starts in the past four seasons, but his 4.30 ERA in 20 starts in 2023 included a 3.16 ERA in his last 15 starts, despite spending two months in the middle of that span for a stress reaction in his left scapula.
He finished sixth in AL Cy Young balloting in 2012 with the Chicago White Sox and was a top-five finisher each of the following six seasons with Chicago and the Red Sox, posting a 2.91 ERA in that torrid seven-year stretch while averaging 240 strikeouts, 198 innings and 30 starts per season.
How this deal helps Atlanta’s payroll
Sale’s new deal counts as just $2 million on the Braves’ payroll for luxury tax purposes in 2024, since the average annual value of the new deal is $19 million and the Red Sox are paying $17 million to the Braves for 2024 from the trade. He will count as $19 million against the Braves payroll for luxury tax purposes in 2025.
For the team’s accounting, it will cost nothing in 2024. It’s actually a $1 million net gain since he has a $16 million salary and Boston sent $17 million in the trade. — David O’Brien, Braves senior writer
Why the Braves traded for Sale
It’s not the top-of-the-rotation starter that many Braves fans had in mind going into the offseason, but Sale is the starter the Braves will be counting on — or at least hoping he can be as effective as he was in his last 15 starts of 2023 and healthy for the postseason, where he’s pitched plenty.
Sale has made just 31 starts in the past four seasons. He had a 3.16 ERA in his last 15 starts in 2023 despite missing two months in the middle of that span for a stress reaction in his pitching shoulder. He finished sixth in AL Cy Young balloting in 2012 with the White Sox and was a top-five finisher each of the following six seasons with Chicago and Boston, posting a 2.91 ERA while averaging 240 strikeouts, 198 innings and 30 starts in those seven years.
But injuries including Tommy John surgery have limited him to a 4.16 ERA in 56 starts in the five years since, including 25 in 2019 before the elbow injury that required surgery, and 20 starts last season when he finished with 125 strikeouts and 29 walks in 102 2/3 innings. With the prices beyond their comfort level for available free agents and teams asking for multiple prospects or young players in exchange for potentially available starters on the trade market, the Braves, already over the luxury-tax threshold for the second consecutive season and with a farm system they’re trying to rebuild, decided not to take the plunge on a younger and/or healthier starter and roll the dice with Sale. And five days after trading for him, the Braves doubled down on their Sale venture Thursday by signing him to a two-year deal. — O’Brien
What does Sale have left?
That’s the big question, right? He was pretty good last year. After a rocky first few outings, Sale had a 3.16 ERA in his last 15 starts but also went more than five innings only once after May 20. His velocity was down a bit, but still in the low 90s.
He just lacked some of the consistency that made him a dominant ace for seven years before injuries took their toll in a big way. — Chad Jennings, Red Sox staff writer
Required reading
(Photo: Chris Coduto / Getty Images)
