Sale was named to the All-MLB First Team presented by MGM Rewards during the All-MLB Awards show in Las Vegas on Thursday night. The announcement came shortly after he was named the NL’s Comeback Player of the Year. Sale won a Gold Glove Award last week and is a finalist for the NL Cy Young Award, which will be presented on Nov. 20.
- Past All-MLB winners
All-MLB honors, first established in 2019, recognize the best player or players at each position across the Majors in a given season, with both First and Second Team selections. The winners are decided by fans, who this year had the chance to cast their online ballots from the end of the regular season through Oct. 11.
The Braves counted Sale as their lone representative on the All-MLB First and Second teams this year. Marcell Ozuna was the only other strong candidate, but the designated hitter spots were given to the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (First Team) and the Astros’ Yordan Alvarez (Second Team).
The Tigers’ Tarik Skubal, the Pirates’ Paul Skenes, the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler and the Orioles’ Corbin Burnes were this year’s other First Team starting pitchers.
Sale won the NL Triple Crown by leading the league in wins (18), ERA (2.38) and strikeouts (225). He was the first NL pitcher to lead in each of these categories since Clayton Kershaw in 2011.
Sale also finished three strikeouts behind Skubal’s MLB-leading total (228). Had he passed Skubal while continuing to lead the Majors in ERA, Sale would have become MLB’s first Triple Crown winner since Johan Santana led the Majors in all three major categories in 2006.
The Braves lefty also ranked first among MLB pitchers with a 6.4 fWAR, a 32.1 percent strikeout rate and a 2.09 FIP.
