Inside the Chris Sale Extension

What Sale and Alex Anthopoulos said about the deal, how it stacks up financially, and why THIS was the time to break Atlanta’s spending ceiling.

“Here to Stay.”

That was the message from Atlanta’s social media account Tuesday morning, announcing that the Atlanta Braves had extended ace Chris Sale.

The 36-year-old, already set to earn $18 million in 2026 on a club option, will now make $27 million guaranteed in 2027, with a $30 million club option for 2028.

It’s the highest single-season salary in franchise history, surpassing Josh Donaldson’s $23 million in 2019.

That matters. Let’s talk about it.

What each side said about the deal

As is customary after an extension, both Sale and Anthopoulos addressed the media Tuesday in North Port.

Sale remarked how quickly the deal came together after both sides separately discussed wanting the veteran to end his career in Atlanta. “He said what he said, I said what I said and we kind of just kind of looked at each other like, ‘Are we serious?’” A quick call to his agent followed, numbers were exchanged, and they met in the middle.

‘The middle’ ended up being the largest salary in franchise history, one which Anthopoulos felt had been earned. “If there’s anyone who deserves it, it’s him,” Anthopoulos said. “He’s a front-line starter, a top-five, top-10 guy in the game. Then you add the makeup, the work ethic, the example he sets. I wish we could find other Chris Sales.”

It’s remarkable the Braves found this version of Sale at all, but Boston was ready to move on after several injury-plagued years when they traded him and his 2024 salary for prospect infielder Vaughn Grissom in December 2023. While Anthopoulos felt good about the deal, no one envisioned what Sale has become in Atlanta.

“Talking to him at the time (he arrived via trade), I don’t know that he was thinking he’d pitch this long,” Anthopoulos said Tuesday. “I think at the time we did the (first) extension - I don’t wanna speak for him - but at the time the sense I got was, ‘Hey, this might be my last deal.’ And then he wins the Cy Young. It’s a credit to him. I think this organization breathed new life into him, and, obviously, he deserves all the credit in the world. He’s the one who put the work in.”

Sale explained that there were several things that made him want to end his career in the Braves organization, including “a great manager, we have a great front office, we have a core group of players here that are gonna be here for a while.” It wasn’t all about the present, though, but also the future. “We got some good young talent coming up. I’m excited for that. I wanna be here for that.”

Despite the salary, it’s still a value

While Sale is making a team record $27M in 2027, it’s still a value for a player of his age and accomplishments.

His two closest contemporaries are future Hall of Famers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, but Sale’s deal comes in well short of both of those men despite similar production heading into their negotiations.

Scherzer, signing in November of 2021 at the age of 36, got a three-year, $130M deal from the New York Mets that had both a $43.3M player option for 2024 and a full no-trade clause.¹

Verlander, in the next offseason, declined a $25M option for the Houston Astros after winning his third Cy Young and signed for two years and $86.6M with Scherzer’s Mets, getting a vesting option for $30M for 2025. He was traded three days after Scherzer, returning to Houston for two prospects.

Sale’s $27M AAV is barely half of what either received.

Here is their two-year production prior to their signings:

Scherzer (2020 & 2021): 7.2 fWAR, 2.81 ERA in 246.2 innings w/ 33.2% K, 6.0% BB, CY-3
Verlander (2022 only): 6.1 fWAR, 1.75 ERA in 175 innings w/ 27.8% K, 4.4% BB, CY-1
Sale (2024 & 2025): 10 fWAR, 2.46 ERA in 303.1 innings w/ 32.2% K, 5.9% BB, CY-1, GG

Even accounting for Scherzer’s shortened 2020 season, Sale’s two-year production matches or exceeds both.

And he’s making half their salaries. Now, clearly, not being an unrestricted free agent impacts Sale’s earning potential somewhat - both players were coveted free agents before landing with billionaire Steve Cohen’s Mets - but the raw dollar figures are still striking.

The $/WAR Math Favors Atlanta

Recent research published by FanGraphs pegs the current open-market cost of a win at just under $13 million per WAR for players projected to produce 2.0 WAR or more in a given season.

If Sale is simply a 3.0–4.0 WAR pitcher in 2027 — a conservative projection given his 10 fWAR over the past two seasons — his market value would sit somewhere between $39–52 million for that year alone.

Instead, Atlanta will pay him $27 million.

Even baking in age-related decline at 36 and 37, the Braves would still be paying below market rate unless Sale collapses to roughly a 2.0 WAR arm. And if he performs anywhere close to his recent level, the surplus value becomes significant.

But despite not reaching the salary heights of his contemporaries, Sale’s done well for himself. Sale has earned nearly $177M in his career. If the 2028 option is exercised, this extension pushes him past $250M in total earnings.²

Sale opined that he didn’t do this alone, and everyone from the organization to his family and former teammates deserves his gratitude. “I know that a lot of people just think this is something that I was able to do and I’m the one out there pitching and all that stuff, but there’s so many people, so many hands, a lot of voices and just a lot of people I leaned on to get to this point. Just very, very thankful for that.”

What does this mean for the future?

While Anthopoulos didn’t directly address any upcoming contract situations the team will face, thoughts have naturally turned to Ronald Acuña Jr. The uber-talented outfielder will be a free agent at the conclusion of the 2028 season, his age-30 season, and has publicly expressed a desire to remain with the organization.

That being said, he has also dealt with two major ACL tears and a litany of other injuries, completing more than 120 games in a season only twice in his eight-year career.

Extending Acuña will be one of the defining decisions of Anthopoulos’ tenure, but it’s too early to know what the organization will do. There’s a lot of moving parts here - A looming CBA negotiation this winter could alter the long-term contract landscape, whether through a salary cap or restrictions on years and AAV, and the rollout of BravesVision could either exacerbate or alleviate money concerns.

For years, the Braves have operated with what felt like a soft ceiling around $22 million per season on long-term deals, one we’ve called the “Atlanta Max”. Even cornerstone extensions for Matt Olson, Austin Riley, and Spencer Strider never crossed that threshold.

Sale just did.

It doesn’t guarantee anything about Acuña’s future. Different age, different risk profile, different leverage.

But it does something important: it shows the Braves are willing to stretch when the value is clear and the player is central to their competitive window.

This deal is about more than rewarding an ace.

It’s about signaling that Atlanta’s internal salary guardrails are more flexible than once believed — and that matters when the next franchise-defining negotiation arrives.

1. Which he waived to be sent to the Texas Rangers when the 2023 Mets collapsed

2. And amazingly, Sale has still never gone to unrestricted free agency. He was traded from the White Sox to Boston, signing multiple extensions along the way, before being traded to Atlanta and signing his second extension with the Braves.