Jon Heyman: Chris Sale should be in MVP conversation

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MLB: APR 26 Guardians at Braves

This Braves season has been headlined by injuries and underperformance.

Yes, Ronald Acuna Jr. and Spencer Strider being lost for the season has been a detrimental blow to the club, as well as the plethora of other players that have been lost for significant periods. However, other than Marcell Ozuna, every player has basically not met preseason expectations.

Yet somehow, the Braves are still in the Wild Card hunt, thanks to the best pitching staff in baseball, headlined by Chris Sale, who is looking to win his first-ever Cy Young award, along with Triple Crown honors.

Sale is tied for the league lead in wins (16), but he leads the NL in both the ERA (2.38) and strikeout (213) categories. After finishing within the top six in AL Cy Young voting seven times from 2012-18, Sale is finally primed to win.

But one award that isn’t being mentioned is the MVP, and Jon Heyman believes Chris Sale should be in that conversation as well.

Of course, Chris Sale isn’t going to win the MVP with voters head over heels for Shohei Ohtani, and Francisco Lindor challenging him. However, it’s not unreasonable to think he could finish right alongside them in the top five. Voters love a good story, and I’m not sure there’s a better one than Sale.

Ohtani signed for a billion dollars to join one of the best teams in baseball and was expected to be great. Sale, on the other hand, hadn’t been able to stay healthy for the better part of four years and joined the Braves with few expectations outside of Atlanta.

All he’s done is turn in arguably the best season of his career and is pretty much the only reason the Braves have any life whatsoever. Without him, the Braves probably aren’t a .500 baseball club, and if this team does make the postseason, it would be difficult to argue any player has been more valuable to their team than Chris Sale, whether he’s in the conversation for the MVP or not.

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David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire

 

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