{"id":3079,"date":"2025-06-21T18:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T18:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/3079\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T18:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T18:47:08","slug":"braves-place-chris-sale-on-15-day-il-with-ribcage-fracture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/3079\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves Place Chris Sale On 15-Day IL With Ribcage Fracture"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Braves announced this afternoon that they\u2019ve placed southpaw Chris Sale<\/a><\/strong> on the 15-day injured list with what the club has termed a fractured left ribcage. The club recalled left-hander Austin Cox<\/a><\/strong> in a corresponding move. As noted by David O\u2019Brien of The Athletic<\/a>, Sale was injured on Wednesday night when he made a diving play to stop a grounder off the bat of Juan Soto<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a brutal blow for Atlanta to be dealt, particularly following a banner week that saw them sweep the then-division leading Mets and get within five games of an NL Wild Card spot. They\u2019ve won seven of their last ten games, but if they\u2019re going to keep that momentum going in a bid to get back over .500 and more firmly return to playoff contention they\u2019ll now need to do so without Sale for the time being. The reigning NL Cy Young award winner, Sale has built on his brilliant 2024 season with a 2025 campaign that\u2019s been nearly as good. Across 15 starts this year, the 36-year-old has pitched to a brilliant 2.52 ERA with a 2.65 FIP across 89 1\/3 innings of work.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s struck out a phenomenal 30.8% of his opponents while walking just 7.0%. Those excellent peripherals have left him with a 2.96 SIERA, making him one of just seven qualified starters in baseball this year with a figure under three. Only Logan Webb<\/a><\/strong> and Paul Skenes<\/a><\/strong> are having better seasons by measure of ERA, and Sale is doing all of that despite terrible batted ball luck: his .329 BABIP allowed is the fourth-highest figure among qualified starters in the majors this year. It\u2019s been another banner year for the southpaw, who has looked rejuvenated in Atlanta after injury-marred seasons with the Red Sox from 2019 to 2023.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that resurgence is now put on hold by another significant injury. Sale\u2019s timetable for a return to action is not yet known at this point, but it\u2019s worth noting that a stress fracture in Sale\u2019s right ribs cost him the first half of the 2022 season. After being sidelined in mid-March by the injury, Sale did not return to the mound until early July. A similar timeline would put the remainder of the southpaw\u2019s 2025 campaign in danger, but it\u2019s important to note that it\u2019s unclear if Sale\u2019s current rib cage fracture is as severe as the rib issue he dealt with in 2022.<\/p>\n

However long the ace\u2019s absence ultimately ends up being, it leaves Atlanta with a rotation mix that\u2019s stretched very thin. The team is already without Reynaldo Lopez<\/a><\/strong> for the foreseeable future after he underwent shoulder surgery earlier this year, and AJ Smith-Shawver<\/a><\/strong> is done for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Spencer Schwellenbach<\/a><\/strong> and Spencer Strider<\/a><\/strong> will attempt to hold things down at the front of the rotation in Sale\u2019s absence, while Grant Holmes<\/a><\/strong> and Bryce Elder<\/a><\/strong> will look to handle mid-rotation duties. Rookie Didier Fuentes<\/a><\/strong> currently holds the fifth starter job after making a spot start against the Marlins yesterday, but another starer like Hurston Waldrep<\/a><\/strong>, Davis Daniel<\/a><\/strong>, or even Ian Anderson<\/a><\/strong> could also be called upon to help round out the rotation mix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Braves announced this afternoon that they\u2019ve placed southpaw Chris Sale on the 15-day injured list with what…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4138,4139,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-3079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-austin-cox","9":"tag-chris-sale","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114722848602983851","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}