Great article, Lindsey. I'm glad we locked him up and I for one hope they do something long term with RAJ (but fear they won't for all the reasons you noted)
I'm super happy to have Sale for (at least) the next two years. TOR starter, great club house guy, team mates love him.
For those who say we should have done this for #5, #7 and/or #54, I would say the following:
1. There is plenty of blame to go around on all sides for #5 not being a Brave for life and I'm not looking to rehash all that here.
2. In hindsight, the 7-year, $177 million contract Dansby signed with the Chicago Cubs in December 2022 which includes a full no-trade clause and an AAV of approximately $25.28 million, looks like a better deal now than it did at the time. At the time, it looked like a huge over pay (to me, at least), but he has put up fWARs of 4.8 in 2023, 4.2 in 2024 and 3.3 in 2025. And we all know SS has been a black hole in the infield since Dansby left.
3. Sale's deal is only two years (1 of which is a club option) and Fried signed for 8 years and $218M which, IMO, minimizes the potential injury risk down side with Sale's contract.
Hope Chris stays healthy and the Braves win another World Series before he's done!
I salute AA (and McGuirk) for getting this done. There obviously is some risk of injury at Sale's age but maybe AA learned a lesson with losing Freeman: if you want to win, you have to pay up and accept the fact that big contracts are not without risk. At least AA is demonstrating the Braves are willing to pay to compete.
It does make me feel good about the ability to give a competitive contract offer, although I'm still curious whether or not this extends to multi-year deals
Great article, Lindsey. I'm glad we locked him up and I for one hope they do something long term with RAJ (but fear they won't for all the reasons you noted)
I'm super happy to have Sale for (at least) the next two years. TOR starter, great club house guy, team mates love him.
For those who say we should have done this for #5, #7 and/or #54, I would say the following:
1. There is plenty of blame to go around on all sides for #5 not being a Brave for life and I'm not looking to rehash all that here.
2. In hindsight, the 7-year, $177 million contract Dansby signed with the Chicago Cubs in December 2022 which includes a full no-trade clause and an AAV of approximately $25.28 million, looks like a better deal now than it did at the time. At the time, it looked like a huge over pay (to me, at least), but he has put up fWARs of 4.8 in 2023, 4.2 in 2024 and 3.3 in 2025. And we all know SS has been a black hole in the infield since Dansby left.
3. Sale's deal is only two years (1 of which is a club option) and Fried signed for 8 years and $218M which, IMO, minimizes the potential injury risk down side with Sale's contract.
Hope Chris stays healthy and the Braves win another World Series before he's done!
I salute AA (and McGuirk) for getting this done. There obviously is some risk of injury at Sale's age but maybe AA learned a lesson with losing Freeman: if you want to win, you have to pay up and accept the fact that big contracts are not without risk. At least AA is demonstrating the Braves are willing to pay to compete.
It does make me feel good about the ability to give a competitive contract offer, although I'm still curious whether or not this extends to multi-year deals