Atlanta Braves experienced left-hander Chris Sale won the National League Cy Young Award for 2024. Sale is a first-time winner of the awards ceremony, the results of which were announced Wednesday by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). Sale sold out Zack Wheeler des Phillies And Paul Skenes des Pirateswho came second and third place respectively in the vote. Sale received 26 of the 30 first-place votes, with Wheeler receiving the other four.
Sale achieved the honor with a 2024 season in which he finished 18-3 with an MLB-leading 2.38 ERA over 177 ⅔ innings and 29 starts for Atlanta. Sale's outstanding campaign for 35-year-olds was more than “just” excellence. He also paced the majors with a 2.09 FIP and 174 ERA+ while striking out a Netherlands-leading 225 batters and posting a WAR of 6.2.
Sale was acquired from the Braves in a trade with the Red Sox last winter. His first season with the Braves marked an unexpected resurgence for a pitcher who was one of the sport's most dominant aces for much of the past decade. Starting in 2012 with the White Sox and continued into his earliest years Red Sox During his tenure, Sale was voted an All-Star seven times in a row and finished in the top five in American League Cy Young voting six years in a row. Before this year, the closest he came to hardware was with Boston in 2017, when they finished second to Cleveland Corey Kluber.
Days ago, Sales Renaissance campaign . His 2024 Cy Young season comes after a long stretch of injuries limited him to just 151 total innings over the previous three seasons. Additionally, Sale did not pitch at all during the COVID-shortened 2020 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Dylan Cease of the Padres and rookie Shota Imanaga of the Cubs rounded out the top five in voting. Here's the full voting breakdown:
Voting for the 2024 NL Cy Young Award
| Chris Sale, Braves | 26 | 4 | 198 | |||
| Zack Wheeler, Phillies | 4 | 25 | 1 | 130 | ||
| Paul Skenes, Pirates | 1 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 53 | |
| Dylan Cease, Padres | 6 | 8 | 11 | 45 | ||
| Shota Imanaga, Cubs | 7 | 8 | 1 | 38 | ||
| Logan Webb, Giants | 2 | 4 | 4 | 18 | ||
| Michael King, Padres | 1 | 4 | 3 | 14 | ||
| Huner Greene, Red | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||
| Ryan Helsley, Cardinals | 1 | 2 | 4 | |||
| Cristopher Sanchez, Phillies | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Reynaldo Lopez, Braves | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Sean Manaea, Mets | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Aaron Nola, Phillies | 1 | 1 |
Sale is the first Braves pitcher to win the Cy Young since Tom Glavine in 1998. Overall, Sale gives the Braves their eighth Cy Young in franchise history, dating back to Warren Spahn's win in 1957 when the Braves were still in Milwaukee.
Wheeler had another outstanding season for the Phillies, finishing second in Cy Young voting for the second time in his career. Wheeler had a 2.57 ERA (158 ERA+) and 224 strikeouts in 200 innings. Skenes went on to finish third in the Cy Young voting He was named National League Rookie of the Year on Monday. The No. 1 pick in the 2023 MLB draft had a 1.96 ERA (214 ERA+) and 170 strikeouts in 133 innings in 23 MLB games.
