BREAKING: Braves extend Chris Sale for two years and $38M

The veteran lefty is now guaranteed to be in Atlanta for two years with a club option for a third.

Lindsay Crosby | Jan 4, 2024

The Atlanta Braves have signed newly-acquired starting pitcher Chris Sale to a two-year contract extension, keeping him in Atlanta through 2025, with a third-year club option.

The Atlanta Braves sign LHP Chris Sale: pic.twitter.com/0k5IqbuffK
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) January 4, 2024

Sale, 34, was acquired last weekend by the Braves (along with cash considerations) for minor league infielder Vaughn Grissom.

The deal is for two years and a total of $38M, with Sale receiving $16M in 2024 and $22M in 2025. There is an additional club option for 2026, priced at $18M.

Sale has agreed to donate 1% of his contract to the Atlanta Braves Foundation, as is typical of Atlanta's internal extensions.

Sale was previously under contract for only 2024 at a salary figure of $27.5M, with $17M being paid by Boston and $10M of Atlanta's remaining commitment deferred for fifteen years, until 2039. There was a $20M club option for 2025 that would automatically vest if Sale was both a top ten finisher in the NL Cy Young voting and finished the season on the active roster (versus the injured list).

✍️ pic.twitter.com/RRLhM7gBM5
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) January 4, 2024

Why extend Sale now?

Extending Sale does a few things for Atlanta, including lowering his 2024 salary commitment from the Braves to nothing by virtue of the $17M paid by Boston, which covers the $16M salary and the $1M trade assignment bonus that was assigned to Atlanta.

Clarifying something:

Sale's new salary for 2024 is $16M & BOS is sending $17M, but that other $1M goes towards covering a $1M trade assignment bonus that Sale had in his contract that Atlanta's responsible for.

He's "free" this season, they're not making $1M.
— Lindsay Crosby, big baseball guy (@CrosbyBaseball) January 4, 2024

Additionally, it secures Sale's services for 2025 and potentially 2026, as Atlanta's facing the free agency of both Max Fried and Charlie Morton.

For Sale, it provides more guaranteed money and security. Injuries have eaten away at Sale's availability in recent years, with Sale pitching only under 150 innings combined since 2019, as a 2020 Tommy John surgery, a rib injury, and a broken finger have all sidelined him. 102.2 of those were last season, however, as he made 20 starts for the Red Sox, with a 6-5 record and 4.30 ERA.

Instead of being guaranteed the estimated $20M to $21M in salary for 2024 (the $17.5M he was due to be paid this year plus the present value of his deferred $10M), Sale receives $38M over two years and the potential to pitch a third season in Atlanta.

It's a gamble on Sale's ability to stay healthy and continue missing bats as he advances into the back half of his 30s, but also provides Atlanta significant rotation stability going forward after the 2024 season.