Atlanta Braves starter Chris Sale has been on a long road to recovery after fracturing his ribs in June. His injury was just another part of the tragedy that has been the 2025 season. However, Sale is finally on the road to recovery.
Sale has pitched in three rehab assignments thus far with a 3.00 ERA through six innings combined in the first two followed by a third (and presumably final) outing where he was stretched out a bit more and went nearly five innings while giving up just one run and struck out five. The Braves haven't announced how many more starts they'd like him to have before pitching with the big league team again.
However, the goal in his third rehab start with the Stripers is for him to reach 75 pitches. Given that he checked all the boxes he needed to, one can assume that he will get activated very soon.. When he does make it back to the MLB roster, how he performs will determine a lot for the Braves.
Chris Sale's return from the injured list will have massive implications for the Braves
Hopefully, Sale returns and continues pitching at an All-Star pace. Before he was injured, he had a 2.52 ERA over 89.1 innings with 26 walks and 114 strikeouts. Most of those strikeouts came from his elite slider.
If he can continue that, the Braves are in good shape next season. He's going to be necessary to help give the team a lot of innings. Health has been a struggle for Sale, but his injury this season was a bit of a freak injury. He should be able to avoid that in the future.
The rotation next season should mainly consist of Sale, Strider, Schwellenbach, and Waldrep with a spot likely up for grabs. The Braves could consider running Elder out there again, but they'd be wise to consider an external option to fill that void.
Should Sale come back from this injury and struggle, this puts Atlanta in a tough spot. They'll definitely need to add another starter at that point. It would even make them doubt Sale's ability to give them meaningful innings. Which means they'd need to build up their depth.
He has proven the doubters wrong since being traded to Atlanta, so expect the southpaw to come out with a chip on his shoulder.