Joy, pride and relief all pervaded the Atlanta Braves clubhouse after the team clinched the final playoff berth on the last day of the 2024 regular season, but a sense of dread quickly swept the fan base. Cy Young and Pitching Triple Crown winner Chris Sale missed the final leg of the playoff push and was unavailable for the best-of-three National League Wild Card Series. The team was unceremoniously swept after working so hard to reach October. This unpleasant trip down memory lane is meant to raise a critical question. Is Atlanta still too reliant on its left-handed ace?

The Braves' offense was the biggest problem during that brief postseason experience, but the ballclub's ceiling was painfully capped without Sale. Although the 37-year-old is healthy right now and will once again finish in the top-three for Cy Young voting, Pedro Martinez is concerned about Atlanta's margin for error in the starting rotation.

“The Braves lineup has enough balance to beat anybody,” the Hall of Fame pitcher and MLB analyst posted on X. “They know how to play the game. They know how to play strategy and have experience. What they need to do do is figure out what to do with pitching after they go through Chris Sale.”

Do the Braves have enough?

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Manager Walt Weiss has effective hurlers he can ask to take the mound. Righty Tyler Mahle has been near-unstoppable since coming over from the San Francisco Giants ahead of the trade deadline. He owns a 1.25 ERA and 0.923 WHIP in seven starts for the squad. Southpaw Martin Perez entered Tuesday's outing versus the Chicago Cubs with a 3.08 ERA through 131 2/3 innings pitched. Grant Holmes has a respectable 3.49 ERA and a .235 batting average against.

The numbers are quite encouraging all around, especially when including Sale's stellar body of work (2.18 ERA and 30.3 percent strikeout rate), but there will be a degree of uncertainty surrounding the unit heading into the postseason. Neither Mahle nor Holmes have ever pitched in such a setting, and Perez has allowed 13 earned runs in 12 2/3 playoff innings. The bullpen is among the best in MLB, but Weiss will need to lean on his rotation at certain times.

Chris Sale alone cannot deliver the Braves a pennant. The inconsistent offense is under considerable pressure to succeed in big games, but the lineup's contributions will only matter so much if the starters fail to set the tone. Pedro Martinez is clearly not convinced that regular season production will translate to October. Others surely share that sentiment when it comes to the non-Sale portion of the staff.

Tyler Mahle, Grant Holmes and Martin Perez will soon have the opportunity to silence all the doubters.