Chris Sale is authoring a chapter in Atlanta that may one day stand up to his legacies in Chicago and Boston.
The 2024 Cy Young Award winner and nine-time All-Star signed a one-year extension with the Braves that includes a club option for 2028, the team announced Feb. 24. Sale, who turns 37 next month, will make $27 million in 2027 and $30 million if the club picks up his option.
If so, that'd make it four years in Atlanta, which doesn't totally reach his seven years as a White Sox or his six as a Red Sox, a period that included the 2018 World Series championship.
But it's also far more than a veteran stopover on the way, potentially, to the Hall of Fame.
Sale edged Zack Wheeler for the 2024 NL Cy, when he led the circuit with 225 strikeouts and made 29 starts, the first time he stayed healthy enough to exceed 20 starts since 2019.
The injury bug bit again in 2025, when a rib cage fracture limited him to 20 starts, but Sale, at 6-6 one of the game's most imposing mound presences, remained dominant. In his two years in Atlanta, Sale has struck out 11.6 batters per nine innings, exceeding his career mark of 11.1, and posted a 168 adjusted ERA, well above his 141 lifetime plateau.
Sale's won 145 career games and has finished in the top six in Cy Young voting eight times.
Chris Sale contract detais
Sale has steadfastly avoided free agency throughout his career. He originally signed a five-year, $32.5 million extension as a pre-arbitration player with the White Sox in 2013; the deal included club options for 2018 and 2019.
The White Sox traded him to the Red Sox before the 2018 season, and Sale signed a five-year, $145 million extension with Boston in March 2019, shortly before entering his final year under contract.
After a trade to Atlanta and before his 2025 club option kicked in, he-reupped for two years with the Braves in January 2024, a $38 million guarantee that included the $18 million club option that he'll play under in this upcoming season.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chris Sale contract with Braves could be worth $57 million