Braves' Chris Sale: Officially tapped for Opening Day
Rotowire
Atlanta announced Monday that Sale will be its Opening Day starter March 27 in San Diego.
If there was any doubt the reigning National League Cy Young winner would be taking the ball for the opener, the club has now removed it. Sale has followed up his Cy Young-winning campaign with a nice spring, posting a 3.52 ERA and 15:4 K:BB over 15.1 frames.
Sale walked one and struck out four over four scoreless, no-hit innings during Tuesday's Grapefruit League game against the Twins.
The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner looked to be nearly in regular-season form as he carved up a Minnesota lineup that included plenty of potential Opening Day starters, with his strikeouts coming against the likes of Matt Wallner, Ty France and Jose Miranda. Sale's outing was even more encouraging considering that Drake Baldwin was getting the start at catcher in place of Sean Murphy (ribs), as Atlanta could elect to bring the prospect north on the 26-man roster. Sale remains on track to get the Opening Day nod against the Padres on March 27.
Braves' Chris Sale: Breezes through first spring action
Rotowire
Sale tossed two perfect innings with zero strikeouts in Saturday's Grapefruit League game against the Twins.
Atlanta's southpaw ace tossed 14 of 21 pitches for strikes, per David O'Brien of The Athletic, topping out at 95 mph with his fastball and not even featuring his plus-plus slider, which helps explain the lack of whiffs. Sale is happy with where he is with his mechanics at this stage of the spring, and after winning the NL Cy Young Award in 2024 while becoming the first pitcher in franchise history to record a Triple Crown by leading the league in wins (18), ERA (2.39) and Ks (225), he's on track to get the Opening Day assignment for Atlanta on the road against the Padres on March 27.
Sale will get the start Saturday for Atlanta's Grapefruit League opener against the Twins, David O'Brien of The Athletic reports.
The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner is almost certain to get the Opening Day start as well, but Atlanta has yet to make that official. Sale's 29 starts and 177.2 innings in 2024 represent his biggest workload since 2017, and the 35-year-old southpaw believes he'll be able to stay mostly healthy again this season. "I kind of found a routine that really worked well for me last year, and when I needed to adjust, I could," Sale said this week. "So again, I'm basically just trying to replicate what last offseason looked like, and then kind of do the same thing through spring training and hopefully it translates to the season." Manager Brian Snitker indicated that Sale's routine would once again include an extra day or two of rest between his starts, as Sale rarely worked on only four days' rest in 2024.
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