Photo by Thomson200, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsChris Sale Is Winning the Cy Young Again and Nobody Is Ready for That Conversation
Five-and-one with a 2.31 ERA and he just held the Phillies to one hit through six. The man won this award two years ago and he's better now.
I'm 93% sure Chris Sale is winning the Cy Young.
Not competing. Not in the conversation. Winning it.
One hit through six innings against a Phillies lineup that scored eight runs yesterday. Nine strikeouts. Zero earned runs. His ERA is 2.31. His record is 5-1. He is 37 years old and throwing a slider that makes right-handed hitters look like they paid for the privilege of embarrassing themselves.
I was at 85% on the Braves being the best team in the NL on April 18. Raised it to 92% on Friday after the Phillies' 10-game losing streak. I'm holding at 92% on the team — but on Sale specifically, I'm higher. 93%. The Cy Young is his to lose.
Here's the receipt.
Sale's six-start log: four starts of one earned run or fewer. One bad outing in Anaheim. One dominant near-no-hitter today. That's a 2.31 ERA through 35 innings with a WHIP under 1.00. He won the Cy Young in 2024 with a 2.58 ERA. He's under that pace right now.
And he missed most of 2025 with a fractured rib. Twenty starts. The narrative was supposed to be: can the old man stay healthy long enough to matter? Six starts in and the answer is that the old man is the most dangerous pitcher in the National League.
Aaron Nola stood on the same mound today and lasted 4.2 innings. Seven hits. Six earned runs. Nola is 32. Sale is 37. Five years younger, five years worse today. Nola gave you 4.2 innings of batting practice and Sale gave you a masterpiece. That's the gap between an ace having a season and an ace having a moment.
The Phillies got Wheeler back yesterday. Good for them. Touching 95, six strikeouts, looked like the Wheeler we remember. And then today the Braves dropped six runs in the first two innings and Sale made the entire Phillies lineup look like it owed him an apology.
That's the gap. The Phillies are fighting to snap losing streaks. The Braves are winning series without their ace breaking a sweat.
20-9. Best record in baseball. Plus-62 run differential. Six games up in the NL East before May.
I said Friday the NL East was over. I'm saying it again. This isn't a hot take anymore. It's reporting.
The Cy Young conversation hasn't started nationally because it's April and nobody thinks April matters. I think April matters when you're 37 and throwing one-hitters against lineups that have Harper and Schwarber in them. April matters when you have one bad start in six and three straight gems after it. April matters when the sample is a quarter of a season and the number is 2.31.
Bookmark this. Come back in September.
Tell me I'm wrong.
The Tilt
Sale's 2026 is already a better Cy Young campaign than half the pitchers who won it in the last decade, and he hasn't even reached May.
— Dex Ponce
What's your take?
Keep Reading
Four Teams Kept That Company. Two of Them Collapsed.
The Braves lost a series for the first time in 2026. The historical company they just left tells you exactly nothing about what happens next.
Twelve Million Dollars and the Signal That Built a Franchise
Ted Turner bought a last-place team and a television frequency. Fifty years later, the franchise he transformed holds the best record in baseball — and every organizational instinct traces back to the signal he sent.
_12_Chris_Sale.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
134 Years and the Same Blueprint
The last franchise team to start this well had Kid Nichols, a four-man rotation, and a 152-game schedule. The 2026 Braves have a depth chart that never stops producing names.