Atlanta Braves veteran left-hander Chris Sale has won the National League Cy Young Award for 2024. Sale becomes a first-time winner of the award balloting, the results of which were announced by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) on Wednesday. Sale beat out Zack Wheeler of the Phillies and Paul Skenes of the Pirates, who finished second and third in voting, respectively. Sale picked up 26 of the 30 first-place votes with Wheeler getting the other four.
Sale cruised to the honor with a 2024 season that saw him go 18-3 with an MLB-leading ERA of 2.38 across 177 ⅔ innings and 29 starts for Atlanta. Sale's standout age-35 campaign was more than "just" top-line excellence. He also paced the majors with an FIP of 2.09 and an ERA+ of 174 while striking out an NL-leading 225 batters and putting up a WAR of 6.2.
Sale was acquired by the Braves last winter in a trade with the Red Sox. His first season with the Braves occasioned an unexpected resurgence by a pitcher who was one of the sport's most dominant aces for much of the prior decade. Beginning in 2012 with the White Sox and continuing through the earliest years of his Red Sox tenure, Sale earned seven straight All-Star selections, and for six straight years he finished in the top five of the American League Cy Young vote. Prior to this year, he came closest to the hardware with Boston in 2017, when he finished runner-up to Cleveland's Corey Kluber.
Days ago, Sale's renaissance campaign earned him the NL Comeback Player of the Year Award. His Cy Young season of 2024 comes after a long run of injuries limited him to just 151 innings total over the prior three seasons. As well, Sale didn't pitch at all during the COVID-abbreviated 2020 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Dylan Cease of the Padres and rookie Shota Imanaga of the Cubs rounded out the top five in the vote. Here's full the voting breakdown:
2024 NL Cy Young Award voting
| Pitcher | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Sale, Braves | 26 | 4 | 198 | |||
| Zack Wheeler, Phillies | 4 | 25 | 1 | 130 | ||
| Paul Skenes, Pirates | 1 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 53 | |
| Dylan Cease, Padres | 6 | 8 | 11 | 45 | ||
| Shota Imanaga, Cubs | 7 | 8 | 1 | 38 | ||
| Logan Webb, Giants | 2 | 4 | 4 | 18 | ||
| Michael King, Padres | 1 | 4 | 3 | 14 | ||
| Huner Greene, Reds | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||
| Ryan Helsley, Cardinals | 1 | 2 | 4 | |||
| Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Reynaldo López, Braves | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Sean Manaea, Mets | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Aaron Nola, Phillies | 1 | 1 |
Sale becomes the first Braves pitcher to win the Cy Young since Tom Glavine in 1998. Overall, Sale's win gives the Braves their eighth Cy Young in franchise history, dating back to Warren Spahn's win in 1957 when the Braves were still in Milwaukee.
Wheeler had another stellar season for the Phillies and finished second in Cy Young voting for the second time in his career. Wheeler had a 2.57 ERA (158 ERA+) and 224 strikeouts in 200 innings. Skenes, meanwhile, finished third in Cy Young voting after being named National League Rookie of the Year on Monday. The No. 1 pick of the 2023 MLB Draft had a 1.96 ERA (214 ERA+) and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings across 23 MLB games.