FORT MYERS, Fla. – There are many reasons to be optimistic about the 2025 Braves. And on Saturday, a rather lanky one ran out onto the field, toed the rubber and fired two perfect innings like it was nothing. Off a Cy Young season, Chris Sale is back – and is healthy.
Yes, he could be an ace for the Braves once again.
But they will also benefit from his personality on and off the field.
“There’s a fine line between clubhouse and on the field,” Austin Riley said. “When he’s on the field, it’s all business, bulldog, fight type of mentality. And then I think in the clubhouse, I think he’s very well-respected. I think he’s been great for even some of our younger pitchers. He’s super open to help and kind of be there for those guys. He’s great in the clubhouse. I think as far as drawing up a perfect guy like that, he’s one of the better ones, no doubt.”
“I don’t know how he does it, but every time he takes the mound, you get the same guy,” Spencer Schwellenbach said. “I saw him give up eight runs earlier in the year (in 2024) and then I saw him go eight innings, zero runs, and he’s the same guy. His demeanor on the mound is the same. I feel like you just don’t see that very often out of a lot of people.”
On Saturday at Lee Health Sports Complex, Sale retired six Twins with 21 pitches in the Braves’ Grapefruit League opener. He didn’t have a strikeout, but he made pretty easy work of the competition – which included stars Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton.
Sale’s four-seam fastball averaged 93.8 mph. He hit 95 mph twice. He threw 10 fastballs, eight sliders and three changeups.
“It was good to get the first one going, get it out of the way, really,” Sale said. “I always get nervous before a start. I mean, I’m, like, pacing in here (in the clubhouse), and even in between innings, it just felt like forever. To get off on the right foot is a good feeling.”
Sale, who turns 36 in March, is an eight-time All-Star who won his first Cy Young Award last season. He earned a pitching triple crown by leading the National League in wins, ERA and strikeouts. No question, the Braves’ rotation is better because of him.
So is their clubhouse. In baseball, the room matters as much as it does in any sport. These guys will be with each other daily for the next eight months.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
On the mound, Sale is intense, but in a genuine way. He holds himself to a high standard. In the clubhouse, he’s a veteran leader who sets an example for others.
“This is real,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “This is just competitive intensity, how he competes. Just everything he does. The greatest compliment I give a guy is that you’re a ballplayer, and you don’t say that about pitchers too much. He’s a ballplayer. He loves everything about this. He loves his teammates, the competition, the work, coming to the ballpark every day. He makes that drive from (his home in) Naples (during spring training). Last year, I said, ‘You know, you don’t have to come up here every day.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, I do.’ He wanted to be here with his teammates. That just speaks volumes of the guy.”
Schwellenbach, a starter entering his second big-league season, has been fortunate to learn from Sale. Something he’s observed: Sale is the same guy – every day. Every Sale start day feels identical.
“Oh yeah. For sure,” Schwellenbach said. “Every single day that he comes in, he’s the same guy. That’s the type of consistency that you want from your best players. You just don’t really see that very much. We know when he takes the ball, it’s really fun to watch, and you know what he’s going to give you.”
Pretty rare for a guy to be that consistent in such a tough game?
“Super unique type of guy,” Schwellenbach said.
How did Sale get to this place of consistency?
“I think I’d probably say the biggest thing was maturity, because I wasn’t always like that,” Sale said, chuckling. “But yeah, just seeing guys through my career have that mentality, those are the guys you kind of want to be around. If you’re kind of a question mark, you don’t know what you’re going to get on a certain day, it can leave some uneasiness in the clubhouse. Just being consistent with how you are on the field, off the field, in the clubhouse and everywhere else.”
The Braves are better for this. If Sale stays healthy, he could once again be one of the best pitchers in baseball. To go with this, his teammates love and respect him.
He’s a plus – a multiplier, if you will – in so many ways.
Especially when he takes the mound. That bulldog attitude is infectious.
“No doubt,” Riley said. “It definitely sets the tone from pitch one. From a defensive standpoint and just playing, you want guys like that when you go out there. I love playing behind him – just to, one, get to watch a future Hall of Famer, and two, that bulldog mentality is really cool. That type of energy, it bleeds into different guys and we feed off of it. Every fifth day, it’s fun.”
In 2025, Sale will try to follow his Cy Young season – which included a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts over 177 2/3 innings – with a comparable encore. He’s fully healthy after the back spasms that forced him to miss the end of last season. He had another normal offseason. And through one spring training outing, he looks good.
Mechanically, Sale feels like he’s in a good spot. He threw all three pitches for strikes. He doesn’t have any specific benchmarks to hit in spring. He’s more trying to get himself right.
“I would say, right now where I’m at, I’m more kind of battling myself,” Sale said. “I’m competitive. I obviously want to go out there and do well. But where we’re at right now, it’s more of OK, how’s the delivery syncing up, how’s the arm action, and just pitch quality, really.”
For the first time in years, the Braves don’t have a debate about who will start on Opening Day. If Sale is healthy, put your money on him.
The Braves hope he can somewhat replicate last season.
And that last season – wow.
“I said, ‘Jeez, I saw every pitch and didn’t even realize it was as good as it was,’” Snitker said. “When you think back on it and look at all the accolades, it’s a laundry list of well-earned awards and everything. And it was just how consistent he was, and watching him, and experiencing him.
“You don’t know a guy – I know just the kind of person he is, but then you watch them do their work, and how consistent they are. … His performance was impressive, how he goes about it, everything. It was fun to watch.”
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