Born in Chicago: White Sox Play Key Role in Achievement of Remarkable MLB Milestone

After Scherzer and Kershaw, Justin Verlander is the only other active pitcher with 2,500 Ks.

It’s a record the White Sox can celebrate with their former staff ace. After all, nearly half of those punchouts – 1,244 -- were recorded as a member of the Chicago staff from 2010 to 2016.

He threw 1,110 innings for the White Sox, who selected Sale with the No. 13 overall pick of the 2010 MLB Draft out of Florida Gulf Coast. He appeared in just 11 games in the minors before debuting later that season, beginning as a reliever before moving into the starting rotation in 2012.

Sale was a workhorse for the White Sox, going at least 174 innings in five straight seasons, three of them over 200 innings each. He led the American League in strikeouts with 274 in 2015.

The White Sox and Sale, now 36, parted before the 2017 season, with Chicago trading him to the Boston Red Sox for a haul that included future White Sox players Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech.

Boston traded him to the Braves before the 2024 season, and he won his first Cy Young Award last season with an 18-3 record, 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts in 177.2.

Sale’s time in Boston was marred by injury, with the lefty starting just 115 games over six seasons, depriving him of the chance to reach the 2,500 mark much earlier.

His total ranks him 40th in MLB history. Should he reach the 3,000 milestone, he would leapfrog some of the game’s greatest pitchers, including eight Baseball Hall of Fame members, with Cy Young, Tom Glavine, Bob Feller and Christy Mathewson among them.

Kershaw, barring catastrophe, will be the next to reach 3,000. He has 2,974.

Among the Top 21 on the strikeout list are 15 Hall of Fame members, with three of them – Kershaw, Scherzer and Verlander – likely first-ballot selections when they reach eligibility for enshrinement in Cooperstown, N.Y. Their contemporary, Zack Greinke, also could hear his name called one day.

The other two? Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling.

Should Sale’s career end in the Hall of Fame, the White Sox will be listed first on his plaque – quite appropriately.