"I can't thank Travis d'Arnaud, Sean Murphy, Chadwick Tromp enough" - Chris Sale credits Braves catchers for his success after 1st Cy Young Award win
Chris Sale's redemption season finally came in 2024. After leaving the Boston Red Sox in 2023, his first season with the Atlanta Braves turned out to be fruitful as he won his maiden Cy Young Award on Wednesday after 15 seasons of grind and just falling short of the coveted award in some of those seasons.
Sale received 26 out of the 30 possible first-place votes with the other four going to Philadelphia Phillies' Zack Wheeler, who came second in the race. Just like AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, Sale also earned the pitching triple crown after leading the NL in wins (18), strikeouts (225) and earned run average (2.38). He also was crowned the NL Comeback Player of the Year last week.
Talking to MLB Network after being named the NL Cy Young winner, Chris Sale talked about and praised his teammates whom he could lean on and trust on his way to winning the Cy Young at 35.
"Leaning on people, man, I can’t stress enough how much everyone helped me get here. I’m just so, so thankful for them," Sale said.
He especially thanked all three Atlanta Braves catchers, Travis d'Arnaud, Sean Murphy and Chadwick Tromp, who worked with him and helped him put his best out there.
"I mean, shoot, I had three catchers back there for me the whole year," Sale added. "Trumpy got me out of the gate, and I wasn’t that great early on. I wasn’t as crisp as I was by mid-summer. But those guys were back there figuring it out. I didn’t have this pitch; I didn’t have that pitch. And yet, they got me through it really well.
"Then it was Trappy for a bit after that, and when Murph got back from his oblique injury, he guided me through games. I’ve said it a lot: I don’t game plan. I don’t watch video. I don’t do scouting reports. That’s all on them. There were days when I only had two pitches, and they still had to navigate through tough lineups. I honestly can’t thank them enough."
Chris Sale finds Atlanta clubhouse the "easiest he walked" into
Chris Sale didn't perform well when he returned from injury in 2023. A dismal 4.30 ERA in 20 games played wasn't the Sale Red Sox fans had expected. This led to the Red Sox trading him to the Braves in December, who then signed him to a two-year, $38 million contract.
"Just being able to go down to Atlanta and feel comfortable—that clubhouse was one of the easiest to walk into. I felt like I fit right in from the start," Chris Sale told MLB Network.
Doing what he did in 2024 is nothing new for the 15-year MLB veteran. His first breakout year was 2012, and he went on to make the All-Star Game and finish in the top six of Cy Young voting every season for seven straight years.
Now in the late half of his career, Chris Sale has found the grip on baseball yet again, and would at least like to pitch a few more years before he calls time on his career.