Hall of Fame Resurgence
By Jackson Westfall
Starting pitching in the modern era of baseball is exciting. Every pitcher touches mid to high 90s on their fastball and has secondary pitches that break from one batters box to the next. Long gone are the days of effectively pitching to contact and grinding out starts where you can scatter seven to eight hits of six or seven innings and be consistently winning ballgames. The art of mixing pitches and deception is gone for all but for a select few star hurlers. Even then it seems less likely everyday that starting pitching will ever be as it was with pitchers routinely making it deep in ball games.
In today’s game with how batters approach the game and the skill sets they possess, any ball put into play with runners on base presents a danger. And because of how good modern hitters are, every pitcher uses all they have in the tank to get every out, putting less emphasis on longevity and more on efficacy. Chris Sale has shown that he is back on the rise to become one of those pitchers again. First, let's take a quick look at his career thus far.
Chris Sale was one of the best starters in the major leagues in the 2010s. Dominating with a fastball that touched triple digits and a wipe out slider form a unique arm angle, Sale was a force to be reckoned with. From 2012-2019 he started 232 games and had a record of 105-70 posting a 3.08 ERA and a WHIP of 1.03. He also struck out a staggering 1,896 hitters while only walking 337 in 1535.1 innings of work. He finished top 6 in the Cy Young voting seven straight seasons and closed out the 2018 World Series for Boston. He did a bulk of this before his age 30 season in 2019, which ended in elbow issues for him. He missed the shortened 2020 season with Tommy John surgery.
After a couple of injury riddled seasons, he was shipped off to the Braves in an off season trade, signed an extension, and has been nothing short of fantastic, posting a 2.68 ERA in 117.1 innings with a league leading .92 WHIP. He doesn't have a 100 MPH fast ball anymore, but he mixes mid 90s heat with a devastating slider and great change. He mixes his pitches and allows very soft contact while limiting walks (149K:25BB). He has pitched seven or more innings in ten of his nineteen starts as well. This has made him one of the front runners for the NL Cy Young award, as he looks as dominant as the Chris Sale of old. If he can have a solid three to four season stretch here, he will reach 3000 strikeouts which is one of the benchmarks for hall of fame consideration. Wins will most likely be his biggest hurdle (he only has 133), but pitcher wins aren’t valued as much anymore anyways.
Chris Sale is one of the best pitchers of our era and if he can finish strong, (which several of his peers have) he will be enshrined in Cooperstown one day. And if he does he will be the first of many of the new wave of pitchers in the modern age to make it in.