Former Florida Gulf Coast Eagles' ace Chris Sale was awarded his first-ever Cy Young Award after his first season with the Atlanta Braves.
The 35-year-old lefty spun a tremendous 2024 campaign, earning the NL Pitching Triple Crown. Sale led the National League in wins, strikeouts and earned run average.
A pitching Triple Crown has occurred three times, and a Cy Young Award has followed each time.
Over the course of Sale's 177.2 innings pitched, he collected 18 wins while fanning 225 batters and posting a 2.38 earned run average.
The former Eagle is representing the Blue and Green with flying colors on the biggest stage of baseball.
"We couldn't be more proud of Chris," said FGCU head coach Dave Tollett. "He's meant so much to us since he first stepped foot on campus. I don't know of anyone that's worked harder to get where he has than Chris. The fact that you can start at FGCU and end up as a World Series champion and a Cy Young winner speaks a lot about Chris but it speaks pretty highly about our program as well."
Sale has been close to this honor many times during his decorated career, but he has never come out on top. Now, the newest National League Cy Young winner has cemented another key piece of hardware for his Hall of Fame case.
Sale received 26 of the 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of American, finishing ahead of Philadelphia Phillies' Zack Wheeler and Pittsburgh Pirates' rookie phenom Paul Skenes.
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