Alex Anthopoulos revived Chris Sale’s career to an extent even he can’t believe

Left-handed starting pitcher Chris Sale has been a household name in Major League Baseball for 14 seasons now. He has now racked up eight All-Star Game appearances and finished within the top five in AL Cy Young voting six consecutive seasons between 2013 and 2018. 

In recent years, Sale has been battling unfortunate fluke injuries that have kept him sidelined. Due to these injuries, Sale was nowhere near the best version of himself with the Boston Red Sox (2018-2023) and the organization traded the veteran to the Atlanta Braves in the Winter of 2023 for youngster Vaughn Grissom. It turns out a healthy offseason and a change of scenery is exactly what Sale needed to return to form. 

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Chris Sale impressed himself 

Before the season even began, Chris Sale was very honest about how his time with the Red Sox was not his full potential. He claimed that he felt the best he had in the past decade and it was the first “normal” offseason in which he could comfortably long toss and push himself. 

Given Sale’s recent injury history several individuals expected him to miss an extended amount of time at some point in 2024. Sale ended up doing the exact opposite and made Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos look like a pure genius. 

Sale did not miss a regular season start until the last week of the season and put up video game numbers. He went 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and led the National League in strikeouts with 225. This was enough to win Sale his first Cy Young Award and a Triple Crown. Even Sale himself did not imagine that he would have this level of success. 

Before Sale was traded to Atlanta he actually anticipated 2024 being his last season in the big leagues. Now that his career has been revived, Sale is under contract with Atlanta through the 2025 season with a club option for 2026 that will likely be picked up if he continues to perform like this.