All signs point to Atlanta Braves left-hander Chris Sale winning his first Cy Young award on Wednesday night. The once-borderline hall-of-fame starting pitcher will punch his eventual ticket to Cooperstown after his greatest season as a professional. Sale had a ton of injuries in his early 30s when he was with the Boston Red Sox. It just so happened that his first with the Braves was his best.

While Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Paul Skenes and Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler would be tremendous candidates most years, neither won the NL Triple Crown like Sale did. Although Detroit Tigers southpaw Tarik Skubal just did the same thing over in the American League, not since Clayton Kershaw did it way back in 2011 has an NL pitcher been this thoroughly dominant in a year.

Skenes will have plenty of time to capture his first, but Wheeler may be looking back at a few starts and wondering what he could have done differently. Regardless, Skenes seems to be well aware that this is Sale’s NL Cy Young award, and his alone. We are talking about a pitcher who put it all together after seasons of great physical struggle to finally put him in the Hall of Fame discussion. He is in now.

Sale led the National League with 18 wins, a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts, nearly identical to Skubal.

Paul Skenes says it's nice to be considered, but believes that Atlanta veteran Chris Sale will, and should, be the NL Cy Young award winner.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) November 19, 2024

Atlanta did not have its best season, but where would the Braves have been without Sale’s very best?

Paul Skenes knows this year’s NL Cy Young award belongs to Chris Sale

Let’s be totally honest with ourselves here. This is the right outcome for all three NL Cy Young finalists. For Sale, he gets to join Atlanta starting pitching royalty alongside Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz. He too will join them in Cooperstown one day. Sale would also be honored with the other Triple Crown winner Skubal. For Skenes and Wheelers, this will serve as motivation.

Skenes is next, but Wheeler is now in the National League. It would not shock me if either of them wins the NL Cy Young next year. In fact, I would say it is infinitely more likely that one of them will win it, as opposed to seeing Sale repeat. Arm trouble in the final weeks of the season contributed to the Braves going out of the playoffs in a dud. Some feel a certain way about it, but that is not the point…

The point is MVP awards and Cy Young awards should honor and recognize greatness in a given season. If they can go to a player on a winning team, then that is wonderful. Baseball can be funny like that sometimes where league MVPs can play for 100-loss teams. The NBA, NFL and NFL would never do such a thing. College football did give Paul Hornung a Heisman Trophy for starring a two-win team.

I just think anytime a pitcher wins the Triple Crown, he should at least get the Cy Young that season.