Report: Braves to pick up club options on two pitchers

Picking up Chris Sale’s $18 million option for next season is an absolute no-brainer. When healthy, he’s been one of the three best pitchers in baseball over the past two seasons.

The bigger question is whether the Braves will try to extend him before the start of the year. There are legitimate injury concerns — there always will be with Sale — but that didn’t stop Atlanta from extending him when they first acquired him from the Red Sox a couple of offseasons ago. And that was before he earned his first Cy Young Award and posted a 2.46 ERA over 303.1 innings with the Braves.

The decision to exercise Tyler Kinley’s $5.5 million option for 2026 was also an easy one. After being acquired from the Rockies at the trade deadline, he was nothing short of dominant, posting a microscopic 0.72 ERA across 24 appearances. He’ll slot nicely into the middle of Atlanta’s bullpen next season, giving the group another reliable veteran arm.