Braves extend Chris Sale for 2027: What it means for ace pitcher, Atlanta’s payroll

As they are wont to do, the Atlanta Braves have once again extended one of their core players. Ace lefty Chris Sale has signed a one-year extension that will pay him $27 million in 2027, the team announced Tuesday. The contract includes a $30 million club option for 2028. Sale is owed $18 million in 2026, the final year of the extension he signed in January 2024.

“We just kind of looked at each other like, ‘Are we serious?'” Sale told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution when asked how the deal came together. “And I called (my agent) and was like ‘Hey, call (POBO Alex Anthopoulos), figure something out.’ You know, we made our pitch, they made their pitch, and we just kind of met in the middle. I feel like this was done in like a week.”

Sale, 36, is entering his third season with the Braves after coming over in what has proven to be a lopsided trade with the Boston Red Sox. The 2024 NL Cy Young winner threw 125 ⅔ innings with a 2.58 ERA and 165 strikeouts around a rib cage fracture last year. He finished 20th among all pitchers with 3.9 WAR despite finishing 100th in innings pitched.

Sale’s extension comes at a time when the Braves are on the verge of a starting pitching crisis. Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep both recently underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from their elbows, which will sideline them months, not weeks. Schwellenbach is already on the 60-day injured list. Waldrep will join him in short order.

Bryce Elder, Grant Holmes, Reynaldo López, and Spencer Strider are penciled into the Opening Day rotation alongside Sale, though López missed most of last year with shoulder surgery and Holmes is coming back from a partially torn UCL. Strider had injury and consistency issues last season as well. It is a potentially excellent rotation with not-hard-to-see downside.

Although there are some decent free agents remaining on the market, the Braves have limited avenues to add to their rotation right now. It’s difficult to make trades in spring training, especially for starting pitching, and they may not have the payroll space to sign Lucas Giolito or Zack Littell. For now, Atlanta will lean on Carlos Carrasco and Martín Pérez as rotation depth.

Here now is what you need to know about Sale and what his extension means moving forward, both for him and the Braves.

Sale’s return to greatness

Injuries, including Tommy John surgery and shoulder problems, limited Sale to 56 starts and 298 ⅓ innings with the Red Sox from 2020-23; in those 56 starts, he had a 4.16 ERA. That’s not terrible, though it appeared Sale was past his prime and done as an ace-level starter. Boston even paid $17 million of the $27.5 million they owed him to facilitate the trade with Atlanta.

Sale’s resurgence with the Braves stems from good health as much as anything. His arm has been healthy — last year’s injury was a rib cage fracture — and, as a result, his velocity has increased in his mid-30s. That is very rare, but it happened with Sale.

The Braves also had Sale really lean into his wipeout slider. He’s thrown that pitch 43% of the time the last two years (47% in 2025) after using it 36% of the time from 2021-23. More velocity on the fastball and more sliders in general is how Sale revived his career with the Braves, and that all starts with a healthy arm. It’s the healthiest it’s been since about 2018.

“I really like being here,” Sale told MLB.com on Tuesday. “These guys obviously gave me a shot and kind of picked me up from off the ground after I exited 2023 limping into the offseason. Everyone’s been great to me here, and I have really enjoyed being here.”

His path to Cooperstown

Sale will not hit the usual benchmarks associated with Hall of Fame starters (300 wins, etc.), though the standards for pitchers are changing. Félix Hernández retired with 169 wins, a 3.42 ERA (117 ERA+), and 2,524 strikeouts. He received 20.6% of the vote last year, his first on the BBWAA’s Hall of Fame ballot. That jumped to 46.1% this year, a significant improvement.

Going into 2026, Sale has 145 wins with a 3.01 ERA (141 ERA+) and 2,579 strikeouts. He has 55 more strikeouts than King Félix in 645 ⅔ fewer innings. Those 2,579 career strikeouts are significant too. They are tenth most all-time among lefties:

1. Randy Johnson: 4,875
2. Steve Carlton: 4,136
3. CC Sabathia: 3,093
4. Clayton Kershaw: 3,052
5. Mickey Lolich: 2,832
6. Frank Tanana: 2,773
7. Chuck Finley: 2,610
8. Tom Glavine: 2,607
9. Warren Spahn: 2,583
10. Chris Sale: 2,579 and counting

Johnson, Carlton, Sabathia, Glavine, and Spahn are in the Hall of Fame. Kershaw will join them as soon as he’s eligible. Lolich is one of the best pitchers not in the Hall of Fame. With good health, Sale could finish 2026 as high as sixth on that leaderboard. By the end of 2027 (i.e. the season he is now signed through), he could become the fifth lefty in the 3,000-strikeout club.

Set the minimum to 2,000 innings and Sale’s career 30.7% strikeout rate (that’s 30.7% of batters faced) is the highest in baseball history, more than a full percentage point ahead of No. 2 Max Scherzer (29.1%). His .218 batting average allowed is tied with Johnson for eighth best all-time. On a per-inning basis, Sale has been as dominant as anyone, really.

Hernández’s progress over the next few years will tell us a lot about Sale’s Hall of Fame case, which of course he is still building. Again, it comes down to health. If Sale stays healthy, he’ll climb up that lefty strikeout leaderboard and could conceivably finish as high as third all-time. That matters more than wins when it comes to Hall of Fame voting these days.

Atlanta’s 2027 payroll situation

All those early career extensions the Braves gave their core players are now in their most expensive years. Granted, they aren’t expensive, but they’re more expensive than they were three or four years ago. Ronald Acuña Jr. will make $17 million in 2026. Strider will make $20 million this season. Matt Olson and Austin Riley will both make $22 million. The cheap core isn’t that cheap now.

Despite that and Sale’s pricey new extension, the Braves look to have a good deal of payroll flexibility heading into the 2026-27 offseason. Here are their payroll numbers, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts:

Atlanta’s 2026 payroll is just below the $264 million second CBT penalty threshold, which is why they may not want to sign Giolito or Littell. After this season, Ha-Seong Kim and Raisel Iglesias come off the books, and the Braves already have Iglesias’ replacement in house in Robert Suarez. Aaron Bummer and Joe Jiménez, two $9-plus million relievers, will be free agents as well.

Looking ahead to 2027, the team’s actual cash payroll is more than $60 million south of what it projects to be in 2026. That $199.3 million assumes Acuña ($17 million) and Ozzie Albies ($7 million) will have their club options picked up, but it doesn’t include any arbitration raises. Atlanta doesn’t have anyone projected to get big arbitration raises though, not with Schwellenbach’s injuries.

On paper, the Braves will have a good deal of money to spend during the 2026-27, though a lockout is almost assuredly coming, and who knows what baseball’s salary landscape will look like after that? There could be a salary cap, stiffer CBT penalties, a limit on contract length, etc. I would bet against a salary cap and bet on stiffer CBT penalties, but who really knows?

If nothing else, the Braves figure to have some level of payroll flexibility this coming offseason even after extending Sale at pretty big money. All those core player extensions are in their expensive years now, but Acuña, Riley, et al are still significantly cheaper than they would be had they become free agents the last two offseasons. Those deals give Atlanta more spending ability.