{"id":548707,"date":"2026-02-01T05:59:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T05:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/548707\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T05:59:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T05:59:28","slug":"chris-sale-expresses-confidence-in-atlanta-braves-2026-starting-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/548707\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Sale Expresses Confidence in Atlanta Braves’ 2026 Starting Rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Braves<\/a> star Chris Sale is the ace of the team’s starting rotation. Rumors have swirled that Atlanta may look to bring another pitcher in before the 2026 campaign. However, during a recent interview, Sale expressed confidence<\/a> in the Braves’ current rotation, via the Braves on X (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n

Sale was asked if Atlanta will be one of the toughest teams to defeat if the starting rotation can stay healthy in 2026.<\/p>\n

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“No doubt,” Sale responded. “If you look at even just the last couple years, health has been kind of a big thing on the docket if you will. If you take, it doesn’t matter which five, or if we use five or six or whatever that number is, if you can have everyone make it from tip to tip, I like our chances as good as anybody honestly.”<\/p>\n

Sale said he is a believer in the rotation without question. He also preached confidence in the Braves’ offense.<\/p>\n

Health will be of the utmost importance, of course. The talent in the rotation is intriguing to say the least.<\/p>\n

As aforementioned, Sale is the ace of the rotation. The 36-year-old was limited to 21 appearances in 2025, but he turned in a 2.58 ERA during that span. In 2024, Sale’s 2.38 ERA led the league.<\/p>\n

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Spencer Strider and Spencer Schwellenbach will handle the No. 2 and No. 3 duties.<\/p>\n

Strider only made 23 starts in 2025. While Sale found success in limited action, Strider struggled throughout his outings last year. He finished the campaign with a 4.45 ERA. Strider was an All-Star in 2023 and still features a high ceiling, so a bounce back performance is certainly not out of the question.<\/p>\n

Schwellenbach has made a total of 38 starts between his first two big league seasons. He already looks like a star, as he holds a 3.23 career ERA.<\/p>\n

Veteran Reynaldo Lopez only pitched in one game last season, but he was an All-Star in 2024. Lopez finished the ’24 campaign with a 1.99 ERA in 26 appearances.<\/p>\n

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There are a few candidates for the fifth rotation spot.<\/p>\n

Overall, the Braves’ starting rotation should be taken seriously. If it can stay healthy and avoid too much injury trouble, it would not be surprising to see Atlanta’s pitching end up being among the best in MLB.<\/p>\n

And if the Braves’ starters can reach their full potential, the entire ball club will benefit. The team’s lineup has more than enough talent to find success, while the bullpen projects to be reliable.<\/p>\n

There is no denying the fact that 2025 was a forgettable season in Atlanta for this Braves squad. With Chris Sale and the starting rotation setting the tone, 2026 could prove to be a rebound campaign for the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta Braves star Chris Sale is the ace of the team’s starting rotation. Rumors have swirled that Atlanta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,192,919,4,5171,659,773,1454],"class_list":{"0":"post-548707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-atlantabraves","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-braves","13":"tag-chris-sale","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-reynaldo-lopez","16":"tag-spencer-schwellenbach","17":"tag-spencer-strider","18":"tag-starting-rotation"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115993848479689347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}