Chipper Jones Names Current Braves Player He'd Want to Have Had As Teammate

The Atlanta Braves legend only needed a one-word answer to this question on social media

Harrison Smajovits | Mar 23, 2025

It was an easy choice for Jones / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

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Atlanta Braves

Legendary Atlanta Braves third baseman and Hall of Famer Chipper Jones kept his answer to one word when asked which current Braves player would he want to have as a teammate. With the stipulation given that it can’t be Ronald Acuña Jr., he picked Chris Sale.

Sale https://t.co/AUIkdtGdR4
— Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) March 23, 2025

The careers of these two did overlap for three seasons. So, in theory, these two could have been teammates. Jones’ final year in MLB coincided with Sale’s first All-Star season.

Obviously, the point of this pick was to name who Jones would have liked to have had around for his own prime years - the stipulation of not picking Acuña, who made his debut six seasons with proves that.

At first glance, most probably scratched their heads at this one. He’s coming off the Cy Young Award, sure. However, he just bounced back. This is true. But when talking about careers, Jones picked an eight-time All-Star. He’s been a Cy Young finalist two other times and finished top-six in the other seven years he was an All-Star.

There are a few fun ways to hypothesize Sale being a Braves rotation force in his prime.

While it’s fun to imagine if he would have won a Cy Young sooner if he was a Brave, it’s still doubtful. At any point in Jones’ career, Sale would have stiff competition, even on his own team. However, getting to either be in the same rotation as Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz or bolstering a rotation that only had Tim Hudson at times still wouldn’t be too shabby.

Better yet, here’s another fun idea. Sale overlaps with Jones at the start of his career, getting to have that tandem with Hudson. He then becomes the ace, getting guys like Fried and Morton for longer and gets to win a World Series with the Braves in 2021. Since he won with the Red Sox in 2018, he’d just be swapping one ring for another.

Sure, he had his injuries and his rough patches. But you never know, maybe the Braves are able to help figure things out a little sooner. There’s a deep rabbit hole we could go down in this alternate-history scenario.