Chris Sale, Spencer Strider Reflect on Winter Work for Braves Season

The Atlanta Braves are closing on reporting to Florida for Spring Training. While Braves Fest didn’t go on as planned, members of the team still sat down and discussed their offseasons to look at how they prepared for what’s next.

Chris Sale and Spencer Strider sat down with the Braves radio play-by-play voice, Ben Ingram, to discuss how they approached their offseasons. Hearing two different pitchers talk side-by-side, you can get a sense of how there is no cookie-cutter approach to how a pitcher prepares for what’s next.

Sale pointed out that he has had to make changes as he’s gotten older.

“It was a lot easier then,” he said. “A lot more goes into it now. More focus on getting my body right, getting my arm right. Playing a bit more catch, probably, than when I did when I was younger and taking a little less time off. I’ve noticed that repetition is good for me.”

The offseason is the time for Sale to build the foundation for how he will approach the upcoming season. It’s where, if he wants to do something new, that’s when he starts ramping up for it. It’s the ideal time to try things out because once you report, you get into the routine of the season, and your focus goes toward that.

It makes sense that it’s a time that Sale has put more focus into conditioning for the season and getting work in. He’s had his share of injuries. He wants to make sure his body is sound. The less he neglects things for any period of time, the better off his body is going to be. The older you get, the harder it becomes to bounce back.

How you approach the offseason depends on your health and what your focus needs to be. Strider had an inverse approach after how his previous season went and took a month off.

“For me, I had 13 straight months of throwing through last season after surgery in 2024, so, [I] decided to take some time off this offseason, Strider said. “Something I probably wouldn’t have done and fully not throw for a month.”

Outside of the unique circumstance where he wanted to give his body a break, he concurred that having that consistency, even in the offseason, is helpful.

Strider, notably, is someone who puts heavy analysis into his craft. It’s close to a science for him. Like most arms, most likely, he doesn’t go trying to figure these tweaks out on his own. Many factors can make or break your progress, and you have to be careful with how you approach it all.

“The margins are so small between optimal and risky. You’re constantly trying to understand how things are changing and why the ball is coming out different, and why part of your body is getting sore all of a sudden.”

For those reasons, he values being able to have a group of minds around him that he can trust for making the needed changes. Coming off a tough year where he was also coming back from a major injury, that support system is needed.

Here, we got a glimpse of two pitchers in different stages of their careers. Sale likely relates to where Strider is, especially with his history. He had to recover from a UCL injury, among other ailments.

Strider dealt with injuries back-to-back. Sale has too. You can see how there are similarities, even when no two pitchers are alike at the same time. It's obvious, but it's more fascinating the more it's observed.

When they get down to North Port, one looks to continue his comeback story dating back to 2024. The other looks to get his career started after an injury that occurred the same year.

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