For some inexplicable reason, there are a few Atlanta Braves players who have been consistently overlooked in recent years. While guys like Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson are (usually) properly appreciated, we have seen others in recent years like Ozzie Albies before the injuries had stacked up and Austin Riley, who haven't gotten the love they deserve from some various rankings. At first glance, it looks like Chris Sale had just suffered the same fate.
In honor of Opening Day, MLB's Andrew Simon put out a list of his 10 best Opening Day starters. Coming off a season where Sale posted a 2.58 ERA with 165 strikeouts in 125.2 innings and where he would have made the NL Cy Young race at least mildly interesting had he not broken his ribs, you would think he would rank highly.
Unfortunately, Sale only placed ninth on this list, which may seem somewhat disrespectful. However, once you actually take a look at the list, you can see that there is no shame at all in being that "low" with one possible exception.
Chris Sale's ninth-place finish in Opening Day starter rankings should be a point of pride, not disrespect
It is hard to think that a guy who won a Cy Young in 2024 and was performing at a Cy Young-level in 2025 would only barely crack the top 10 starters on Opening Day. Then you look at the list and see how loaded it is. Ahead of Sale (in order) are Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Cristopher Sanchez, Hunter Brown, Max Fried, and Logan Webb. That...is a very loaded list.
While it wouldn't be surprising to see Sale have a better year than most of those guys (topping Skenes or Skubal is going to be tough for anyone from any era), the only ranking that MIGHT be questionable is Webb above Sale, but Webb is also really good despite his dud performance to start the season. As for the other seven, they are extremely defensible, especially when you think about Sale's injury history and advanced age.
Most importantly, these rankings don't have actual value in terms of what a player does or doesn't do. If Sale shoves on Friday and ends the year healthy and as one of the better pitchers in the NL, Braves fans should take that every time. Sure, it would be nice to have the guy who is the absolute "best", but we shouldn't be greedy given Atlanta's truly cursed luck the last couple of years.