Did Chris Sale pitch himself into the Hall of Fame in 2024? - ESPN

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on Sept. 14. All stats are now updated through the 2024 season. Sale is a finalist to win the Cy Young Award on Wednesday night.

Chris Sale's pitching career has endured more twists and turns than his famous unorthodox delivery.

From 2012 to 2018, Sale — first with the Chicago White Sox and then, following a trade, with the Boston Red Sox — was one of the best starting pitchers in the majors, receiving Cy Young votes each season (although never finishing first). He looked like a future Hall of Famer, even helping Boston to a World Series title in 2018. Since then, though, a series of injuries over the next five seasons seemed to sidetrack his career.

Until this year. In a 2024 resurgence with the Atlanta Braves, Sale went 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts. He led the National League in wins, ERA and K's to become the first pitcher to win the Triple Crown since Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw did it in 2011, with his Cy Young-favorite counterpart, Tarik Skubal, doing the same in the American League. Sale joined Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton as the only left-handers with at least eight 200-strikeout seasons and was crucial in helping the Braves make the playoffs this year after Cy Young favorite Spencer Strider went down for the season in April.

There's also this: Sale's tremendous season might have put him back on a Hall of Fame path.

Sale might be the best active pitcher who has never won the Cy Young Award. He ranks 27th all time in Cy Young award shares, a number Bill James created that calculates the percentage of points a player received for a particular award. (For example, a unanimous win is worth 1.00 award share; if a player receives 50% of the