The injured Braves starter is an All-Star for the ninth time, while Atlanta’s first baseman plays his way onto the squad for the third time.
The Atlanta Braves will have more than just Ronald Acuña, Jr. representing them at the 2025 All-Star Game that they host this year. Both Matt Olson and Chris Sale have been selected as reserve members for the National League roster for this year’s All-Star Game.
For the NINTH time in his career, Chris Sale is an All-Star! pic.twitter.com/DCmyjnJzhH
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 6, 2025
The reigning 2025 National League Cy Young Award winner – and pitching Triple Crown champ – will enjoy his ninth All-Star Game selection and second in two season with Atlanta.
Prior to his injury, Sale has posted 2.5 fWAR despite a slow start, striking out 114 batters in only 89.1 innings while carrying a 2.52 ERA and 3.12 xFIP.
Sale, 36, made 15 starts for Atlanta prior to his injury – one he sustained while attempting to make a diving stop in the ninth inning of his last start.
As far as Matt Olson goes, you can certainly say that he deserves to be there. Heading into Sunday’s action, Olson was hitting .271/.372/.495 with a .375 wOBA, 17 home runs and 141 wRC+. Olson had surged at the plate recently while playing solid defense as well and his production on the season was to the point where Olson actually led all qualified first basemen in fWAR across all of baseball at 3.1 for the season. This will be Olson’s first All-Star Game appearance since 2023 and his third career appearance after he made the AL All-Star team with the Oakland Athletics back in 2021.
Both Chris Sale and Matt Olson performed very well during the first half of the season and now both of them have been duly rewarded for that performance with a selection to the NL All-Star team. Despite the awful win-loss record for the season so far, the Braves will at least received a solid amount of representation during the game with Brian Snitker on the coaching staff, Ronald Acuña Jr. starting (and presumably leading off) and both Olson and Sale being on the team as well. Hopefully each of them represent the Braves well as hosts for this year’s Midsummer Classic.