Chris Sale has spent the season making a very old baseball truth look outdated: age does not have to mean decline.
The Braves left-hander is back in the NL Cy Young conversation after piling up 117 innings with a 2.08 ERA and 2.48 FIP. If the season ended now, those numbers would stack up with his 2024 Cy Young run. And with Atlanta’s other starters struggling, Sale has been the steady hand the Braves have leaned on while they sort through their pitching situation ahead of the trade deadline.
What makes this run stand out is not just how well Sale is preventing runs. It’s how hard he’s throwing while doing it.
At 37, Sale is doing something almost no pitcher does: he’s missing bats and lighting up the radar gun at a level that looks more like a younger arm in its prime than a veteran deep into his career. His 2.08 ERA would be the lowest of his career as a starter if the season wrapped today, beating his 2018 mark of 2.11 in 27 starts.
It would also rank as the 11th-lowest ERA by a pitcher age 37 or older in the Live-Ball Era with at least 100 innings. And if he reached the 162-inning threshold while holding that ERA, only Justin Verlander’s 2022 Cy Young season and Roger Clemens’ 2005 season at age 42 would top it.
The velocity piece is just as wild. Before this year, Sale’s fastest average fastball as a starter came in 2015 with the White Sox, when his four-seamer sat at 95.5 mph. He averaged 96.3 mph in his debut season in 2010 over 23.1 innings and 95.9 mph in his first full season as a reliever in 2011.
This season, he’s averaging 96.2 mph on the four-seamer, the fastest average he’s ever posted as a starter. He’s also thrown 103 pitches at 98 mph or harder, his highest total since he reached 172 such pitches in 2018. For comparison, he had just 18 pitches at 98 mph or above in 2024 and 19 in 2025.
That surge is even more striking when you zoom out. Sale has thrown 2.7 times more 98 mph-plus pitches this year than he did in his first two seasons with the Braves combined. And among pitchers who are 37 or older this season, only four have even hit 98 mph: Sale, Jacob deGrom, Aroldis Chapman, and Luis Garcia.
Sale may or may not end up with the NL Cy Young, especially with Jacob Misiorowski’s dominance in the mix. But there’s no mystery about where he belongs in the bigger picture. He has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this year, and the most remarkable part is that he somehow looks like he’s still climbing.
In Other News...
Braves Face A Painful Decision On Three Familiar Names
The Braves have reached the part of the season where even familiar names can land in trade conversations, and Sean Murphy is one of the more intriguing cases. His defense still gives Atlanta real value behind the plate, and while his contract makes him a logical name to monitor, the club also has little incentive to move him when his market value is not exactly at its peak. Murphy is also getting closer to a return, which only adds to the sense that this is less about a clean break and more about a difficult balancing act.
Ha-Seong Kim and Spencer Strider make the picture even messier, though in very different ways. Kims situation is tied to his rehab work and the roster crunch that comes with it, while any deal involving him would likely be about clearing money more than bringing back a meaningful return. Strider, meanwhile, sits in a far more complicated spot because of his contract and injury uncertainty, which makes him a tough player to move unless Atlanta is willing to absorb a painful amount of the cost. [Read more 🡒]
Braves May Be Near A Tough Austin Riley Decision
Austin Rileys recent stretch has only sharpened the questions around how much the Braves can keep leaning on him as the season wears on. The offense has been quiet enough to notice, with multiple hitless games and a pile of strikeouts, and the Orioles series offered little relief when the underlying numbers landed well below his usual standard. For a player whose bat has long been the carrying tool, that kind of dip naturally puts a spotlight on every other part of his game.
The defense at third base has not done him many favors in the bigger picture, either, with his career work there grading out as marginal or worse by Statcasts OAA-based measure outside of a tiny debut-year sample. So even as Atlanta weighs what comes next, the discussion is no longer just about whether Riley will snap out of it at the plate. It is also about how the Braves balance patience, production and the realities of a long season with a player whose value has become harder to define in the moment. [Read more 🡒]
Braves May Have Finally Found The Rotation Arm Fans Wanted
The Braves are still working through a rotation picture complicated by injuries, and the trade deadline is giving them a chance to look beyond internal fixes. One name that has surfaced in that search is a Mets right-hander who is coming off a rehab appearance and drawing attention as New York leans toward selling, which naturally puts Atlanta in the market for a starter who can help right away.
For the Braves, the appeal is obvious: they need innings, stability and another arm they can trust in a stretched rotation. There are other pitching possibilities in the mix, but this one stands out because the timing lines up with where both clubs are headed, and the contract situation only adds to the sense that a move could come together before the deadline if the price and fit make sense. [Read more 🡒]