Braves' Anthopoulos rules out Sale trade: 'Completely ridiculous'
Atlanta Braves general manager and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos firmly dismissed any possibility of star left-hander Chris Sale getting traded this season.
"I've seen the speculation. It's completely ridiculous to me," Anthopoulos told 680 The Fan on Wednesday. "We are not selling, especially someone who has club control beyond the current year. Will not happen. I never make definitive statements unless I'm going to stick to them. Once you make definitive statements and then you go back on them, you're a liar and you're done."
Sale, the reigning National League Cy Young winner, has an $18-million team option for the 2026 season as part of a two-year, $38-million contract extension he signed in 2024.
The 36-year-old has been excellent in 2025, posting a 2.52 ERA with 114 strikeouts in 89 1/3 innings.
The Braves have been one of the biggest disappointments in baseball, but Anthopoulos said he's still hoping the team can regroup and position itself to be a buyer at the trade deadline.
"Will. Not. Happen. Bold, italicize it, caps," Anthopoulos reiterated about trading Sale. "So much so that I'm trying to make a trade now - it's very hard to make a trade in June - just to signal to everybody that we will not sell. (If) you get to the end of July and things are completely changed, I guess we would re-evaluate, but you'd have to be extreme. We're built to win. Our expectations are to win. Our expectations are to go for it the entire time."
The Braves trail the New York Mets by 11 games for first place in the NL East and sit six games back of a wild-card spot.