ATLANTA \u2014 The Atlanta Braves are leaning on Chris Sale to provide much-needed stability for a rotation that has been decimated by injuries this spring.<\/p>\n
Sale, 36, will start Atlanta\u2019s season-opening game tonight against Kansas City. It will be Sale\u2019s second-straight opening day start and seventh of his career.<\/p>\n
Sale, who won the 2024 N.L. Cy Young Award in his first season in Atlanta, has never been more important for a team\u2019s hopes entering a season. A devastating series of injuries to starting pitchers has forced first-year manager Walt Weiss and the Braves to remake the rotation behind the left-hander.<\/p>\n
The bad news began at the start of spring training when right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach was placed on the 60-day injured list due to inflammation in his right elbow. Schwellenbach had surgery Feb. 18 to remove \u201cloose bodies\u201d in the elbow and rotation candidate Hurston Waldrep had a similar procedure later in the month.<\/p>\n
On March 9, the Braves announced left-hander Joey Wentz, another rotation candidate, would miss the season after he tore the ACL in his right knee while covering first base in an exhibition game.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the Braves said right-hander Spencer Strider, one of the team\u2019s top starters, will start the season on the injured list because of a strained oblique.<\/p>\n
Schwellenbach and Waldrep could return around the middle of the season. The Braves are hopeful Strider, who was placed on the injured list retroactive to Sunday, may return in April.<\/p>\n
For now, Reynaldo Lopez, Grant Holmes and Bryce Elder are expected to line up behind Sale. Rookie Didier Fuentes, who made the opening day roster as a middle reliever after an impressive spring, could be needed as a starter. JR Ritchie, who will open the season at Triple-A Gwinnett, is another option.<\/p>\n
There is some irony Sale is almost the last man standing from the Braves\u2019 original projected rotation. He hasn\u2019t been known for good health in his 15-year career with the Chicago White Sox, Boston and Atlanta.<\/p>\n
Sale made only 31 starts for the Red Sox from 2021-23. He missed the 2020 season after having Tommy John surgery. He made only two starts in 2022 after he fractured a rib and then broke his left pinkie. His final season with Boston ended in August 2023 when he broke his right wrist riding a bicycle.<\/p>\n
Sale was 7-5 with a 2.58 ERA with Atlanta last season, when he landed on the injured list June 21 with a fractured left rib cage and didn\u2019t make his next start until Aug. 30.<\/p>\n
Sale posted a 2.75 ERA this spring and said he is excited to make another opening day start.<\/p>\n
The start will come three days before Sale\u2019s 37th birthday.<\/p>\n
Sale is 25-8 with a 2.46 ERA in 49 starts and one relief appearance with the Braves. He made the All-Star team in 2024 and 2025, raising his career total to nine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 The Atlanta Braves are leaning on Chris Sale to provide much-needed stability for a rotation that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-646127","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-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116300112566384212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646127","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=646127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}