Chris Sale is the reigning Cy Young winner and the man who put the entire National League on notice last year with the Atlanta Braves. He just strolled onto the mound for his 2025 Spring Training debut and didn’t break a sweat. Two innings. Six batters. Six outs.
Not a single one-by strikeout—just weak contact, one after another, as if the Twins’ hitters were swinging foam bats. Four groundouts, a lineout, a pop-up. Efficiency at its finest.
Pure Efficiency: Sale Wastes No Time
And speaking of efficiency, let’s talk pitch count—21 pitches. That’s all Sale needed to carve through Minnesota’s lineup, and we’re not talking about some Triple-A hopefuls here.
Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton are two of the biggest names in the Twins’ lineup. Both stepped in, both stepped out.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Spring Training is where veterans get their feet under them, and prospects try to turn heads. But this? This looked like a guy who was already locked in.
Sale is coming off the comeback season of 2024—a Cy Young, a Triple Crown, a National League Comeback Player of the Year, and a Gold Glove.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
The stats from last season read like something out of a baseball fever dream: 18-3 record, 2.38 ERA, 225 strikeouts in 177 2/3 innings, and a 1.01 WHIP.
That’s not just good—that’s ace-level, game-changing dominance. And the accolades followed. The Cy Young was obvious, but Sale didn’t stop there.
He was named the NL’s Outstanding Pitcher by his peers, took home a Gold Glove, and was recognized as the Comeback Player of the Year by both The Sporting News and the Players Choice Awards.
What’s Next for Sale and the Braves?
While projections are just projections, FanGraphs isn’t expecting Sale to slow down much in 2025. A projected 14-8 record, 3.07 ERA, and 230 strikeouts in 187 innings? That’s still elite territory.
Seeing Sale in midseason form this early is the best possible sign for the Braves as they chase another deep postseason run.
At the time of this update, the Braves were leading the Twins 1-0 in the fourth inning down in Fort Myers. But let’s be real—the only score that mattered today was Sale: 6, Twins hitters: 0.
