After a dominant season in Atlanta where he struck out 225 batters across 177.2 innings pitched, Braves stud southpaw Chris Sale at long last will add another bit of MLB hardware to his impressive collection of pitching accolades this week, as he is expected to win the National League’s Cy Young Award on Wednesday night.
The eight-time MLB All-Star LHP will win the Senior Circuit’s top pitching honor after amassing 6.2 WAR and 18 wins in 29 starts for the Braves, notching career highs for the latter - while the former fell just shy of the 6.5 WAR seasons that he had with the Chicago White Sox in 2013 and the Boston Red Sox in 2018. Sale now has 138 wins in 372 MLB games with a career WAR total of 53.4, adding the NL Cy Young to his World Series championship with the Red Sox in 2018 and a pitching triple crown (leading the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts) this season.
The 35-year-old southpaw did all this despite entering the 2024 MLB season with the 14th shortest NL Cy Young odds, at +3500, speaking to how out of left field Sale’s season was and just how long of a longshot his bid to win the league’s top pitching honor was at the start of the year. While Sale has had an impressive overall career, he came to Atlanta after pitching less than 200 innings over his last four years with the Red Sox, and Boston fans were more than ready to bid him adieu.
To get a sense of how rare Sale’s 2024 season was, BetGeorgia.com - home to all developments around Georgia sports betting - broke down the preseason Cy Young odds in the Senior Circuit and how often Braves pitchers have taken home the award to quantify just how unique the year was for the veteran southpaw.
NL Preseason Cy Young Odds:
Spencer Strider +450
Zack Wheeler +800
Logan Webb +950
Yoshinobu Yamamoto +1000
Zac Gallen +1200
Max Fried +1300
Tyler Glasnow +1400
Blake Snell +1800
Justin Steele +2000
Aaron Nola +2200
Dylan Cease +2500
Jesus Luzardo +3000
Freddy Peralta +3000
Bobby Miller +3500
Chris Sale +3500
Mitch Keller +3500
Courtesy Sports Illustrated:
Braves NL Cy Young Winners:
Warren Spahn (1957)
Tom Glavine (1991, 1998)
Greg Maddux (1993, 1994, 1995)
John Smoltz (1996)
How Sale Stacks Up Vs. Braves Cy Young Winners:
Spahn: 363 wins, 100.1 WAR
Glavine: 305 wins, 80.7 WAR
Maddux: 355 wins, 106.6 WAR
Smoltz: 213 wins, 69.0 WAR
Sale: 138 wins, 53.4 WAR
How Far Did Sale Climb in 2024?
When it came to scaling the surmountable odds board to take home the league’s top pitching award, Sale climbed the equivalent of pitching’s Mount Everest in 2024, going from being ranked in a tie with Bobby Miller and Mitch Keller for 14th NL-wide, at +3500, preseason to capture the Cy Young Award at year’s end.
By doing so, Sale will join an elite list of Braves pitchers dating back to the club’s days in Milwaukee that have won the award, becoming just the fifth hurler in franchise to ever win a Cy Young, joining the likes of Warren Spahn, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz.
Each of those pitchers found their way into Cooperstown when their playing days were done, which speaks to how high of a bar you have the climb over to find your name etched onto the MLB’s Cy Young Award winner list.
Of the five, Spahn had the most wins (363) in his playing career, while Maddux had the highest career WAR total, at 106.6, followed by Spahn (100.1), Glavine (80.7) and Smoltz (69.0). Sale, by comparison, has 138 wins and 53.4 WAR so far in his MLB career.
Should Sale continue at his current wins per season pace of 9.9 and WAR clip of 3.8, he’d finish with 188 wins and 72.4 WAR, which would put him well behind the other four Braves Cy Young winners in terms of pitching victories but ahead of Smoltz’s WAR total of 69.0, meaning he’d have a shot at reaching Cooperstown should he keep at it through his age-40 season.
For now, what we do know is that Sale will officially join an elite list in the ATL, becoming just the fifth hurler overall (and fourth since the club moved to Georgia in 1966) to win the National League’s Cy Young Award after a stellar season in Georgia’s capital city.
USA Today photo by Jordan Godfree.
