Tom Glavine reveals how Chris Sale’s dominance is not all he has given the Braves

At this point, just give Chris Sale the National League Cy Young. Fresh off his league-best 17th win on the season, Sale lowered his NL-best ERA to 2.35, as well as extending his league-best strikeout tally to 219. After seeing him struggle so much physically the last few seasons with the Boston Red Sox, his first year with the Atlanta Braves has been more than a breath of fresh air. He has been incredible!

Shortly before having his way with the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup on Saturday night, David O'Brien wrote a great feature about Sale for The Athletic ($). One of the people he spoke to on record was Atlanta legend Tom Glavine. As a 300-game winner, two-time NL Cy Young winner and first-ballot National Baseball Hall of Famer, Glavine knows a thing or two about the run that Sale has been on.

Glavine said several things to O'Brien, but his last remark about helping the team out was astounding.

“It turned out to be a genius move, right? No, but I mean, he’s been obviously really, really big for the full rotation not just in terms of production, but I know he’s been a huge influence on a lot of those young guys, too. You can’t put a price tag on that.”

Sale has helped his teammates like Reynaldo Lopez, Max Fried and Spencer Schwellenbach grow even more in the Atlanta rotation. Even the ageless Charlie Morton has probably learned a thing or two from the other elder statesmen of the Atlanta rotation. All the while, we have to wonder where the Braves would be if Alex Anthopoulos had not traded for Sale in the high-profile deal with the Red Sox.

The Braves are looking to make it three games in a row over the Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball.

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Chris Sale has been so incredibly beneficial to Atlanta Braves rotation

Not only did the Braves get multiple years of control in the Sale deal with Boston, seasons that will be at a reasonable price, but a team option in two years, they also got a hall-of-fame-caliber pitcher experiencing a career renaissance. Sale may not ever pitch like this again in a Braves uniform, but the lessons he is teaching his teammates will go a long way towards sustaining a champion down the line.

Overall, this is somewhat reminiscent of the Braves rotations from yesteryear that Glavine was a part of with fellow Hall of Famers Greg Maddux and John Smoltz. They made it a friendly competition among themselves to give everything they had every fifth day. This resulted in the Braves becoming the Team of the 90s, rattling off an unheard-of 14 straight division title. It was iron sharpening iron.

Ultimately, Sale is going to need more than just one brilliant start every fifth day to pitch into October this season. This MASH unit on offense is holding on for dear life at this point. There are two other playoff-caliber teams in-division, and only so many spots available across the National League. Atlanta needs to save its best baseball in the second half of September if the Braves want to get in.

For now, we should marvel at the best season a Braves pitcher has had since the turn of the century.