How Braves trade shifted Chris Sale's retirement plans
11/22/2024 01:35 AM
The MLB’s winter stove can flame up or cool off on a whim. An All-Star’s change of plans can mean the opening up of an owner’s wallet or the closing of a front office’s championship window. The Atlanta Braves heard one possible Hall of Famer fighting back against Father Time and decided to go all-in on Chris Sale last offseason. That investment paid off in a Cy Young award and might have kept Sale in the game for years to come.
Sale slid up to the plate on the Foul Territory podcast and delivered a home run explanation for why the newest Cy Young award winner went back on his retirement plans.
“Yeah, that was something I was talking to my wife about last night (before being named the NL Cy Young Award winner),” Sale shared. “Before I got traded last offseason we were really planning that this year (2024) was probably going to be my last year playing. I had one more year left on my contract and we actually pulled our kids out of school. We were doing home school this year just so we could travel.”
The Sale family took some drastic measures so they could be together for one final ride, but those plans were all for naught. Atlanta will have another year with Sale leading the way after all.
Chris Sale was initially planning on 2024 being his last season before he got traded to Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/G0YDZVTcGf
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) November 21, 2024
“It was like, okay, if we are going to do this one last year let’s fully live the baseball life,” Sale explained. “(The family) went on a lot of trips (because) we had planned this last year before the trade happened. So we just kind of stuck with the plan like doing home school now.”
Homeschooling still requires field trips, and Sale’s children got to see most of the country last season.
“We went to Philadelphia and learned about the founding fathers,” Sale said. “We went out to Alcatraz in San Francisco and Red Rocks in Colorado. It was nice having the family together and having them be able to experience this because I have not been traveling a lot the last few years with all of the injuries. It was nice having that and being able to share this experience with them…It goes quick so we wanted to be able to keep our family together and enjoy it.”
Braves bet big on Chris Sale’s switcharoo
Chris Sale has seen almost everything throughout a 14-year MLB career. He won a World Series in 2018, suffered through Tommy John surgery, then got traded to the Atlanta Braves. The NL East behemoth bet big on Sale returning to form, and that investment paid off in a Cy Young season. It only makes sense that the 35-year-old is ready to run it back in pursuit of another championship ring.
Sale not only took on the 2024 Cy Young award but also earned NL Comeback Player of the Year honors thanks to an 18-3 record and 2.38 ERA. Sale stuck out 225 batters while allowing only 47 earned runs in 29 starts with the Braves. Now that two-year extension with an $18 million club option for 2026 looks like a bargain for Atlanta’s decision-makers.
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