When the Atlanta Braves sent Vaughn Grissom to the Boston Red Sox for 7X all-star Chris Sale, it made Braves fans wonder how healthy Sale could be for 2024. Obviously, Sale has been good in his prime but at 34 years of age and 13 seasons of MLB experience many believe the hour glass is running out of sand.
In addition to almost 1,800 innigs pitched, Sale has faced his fair share of injuries lately. He had a torn UCL that required Tommy John surgery in 2020 and missed the majority of the 2021 season. This devestating injury was followed by a fractured rib, fractured pinkie finger and a broken right wrist.
Chris Sale has been very honest this offseason saying that he fully understands why people are questioning his contrubitions to the Braves. We all know that when he is healthy, Sale is one of the toughest pitchers to hit in all of Major League Baseball. However, many believe that he is too injury prone to see a lot of mound time. Sale feels otherwise.
Braves new lefty claims he finally had a much needed normal offseason.
Chris Sale on how he's feeling as #Braves camp begins
— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) February 17, 2024
"It's been a while since I've had the whole package of finishing healthy, having a normal offseason and coming into spring training being healthy. All those things and hopefully being a little bit older and slightly smarter." pic.twitter.com/nfqQub7722
Knowing that Chirs Sale feels like this is the healthiest he has been since 2018 should make Atlanta Braves fans estatic. All he did in 2018 was go 12-4 with a 2.11 ERA, make the All-Star Game and finish 4th in the American League Cy Young Award voting.
If Sale is remotely close to that stat line in a starting rotation that also features Max Fried, Spencer Strider and Charlie Morton, the Atlanta Braves will be in a great position to make a run at another World Series title.
We know that we cannot expect Chris Sale to be the same pitcher he was a decade ago. However, the combination of him being healthy and experiencing his first normal offseason of training in quite awhile, should have Braves fans giddy at the sight of Sale in a Braves uniform.