The Chris Sale Era In Boston Is Over As The Red Sox Ship Him Out To Atlanta For Young Infielder Vaughn Grissom
Crank up the stove baby, we've got a trade!
And a weird trade indeed. Let's break it down
The Braves have been in search for starting pitching. They were in on Glasnow, but balked at the trade offer. They find their trade partner in Boston and acquire soon to be 35 year old Chris Sale who has one year left on his deal. He's injury prone and always an interesting voice in the clubhouse, but if he stays on the field he can help your rotation no doubt as a 3 or 4.
As for Boston? Congrats, you got something for a broken Chris Sale who was leaving town in a year anyways! And that something is an actual young, talented second baseman/shortstop who you have six years of team control of. You also get out of Sale's 2024 money which had him earning $27M. Boston is sending $17M to Atlanta, but that nets them $10M overall of space. I think Breslow has been told there's a budget from Henry up top and this is his way of creating some money to give to a Jordan Montgomery or Blake Snell, while also taking a flier on Grissom. Sale's been a disaster since signing that extension. It was time to move on.
And yeah, you better be actually in on those guys because right now your rotation looks like this.
Giolito somehow finding himself a 2 year $38.5M deal was stunning yesterday considering how he's looked the last two seasons. He's a reclamation project and their hope is Bailey can fix him, but that's a pretty penny for a guy who had a 6+ ERA on two separate teams last season.
The scary scenario here is that dumping Sale's money was just their way of finding the Giolito cash. That'd be tough, but completely possible with John Henry running the show.
If you're the Braves you probably don't care about trading Vaughn Grissom. They're the Braves. They just find guys left and right to insert into their machine of runs. He's had a tough time getting consistent ABs so far in that gauntlet of a lineup, which makes it tough to really get a gauge on him, but odds are if they're giving up on him there's a reason for it. If Sale can stay healthy (and that's a giant, giant if) you improve your rotation. There's definitely some life in that arm still, it's just a matter if that arm and body can hold up. Recent history would say the answer to that question is no.
TLDR; If you're a Sox fan and you don't have Snell or Montgomery coming down the pipeline next I'd grab torches and head to Henry's house. Grissom could be a nice find here while dumping Sale's money, but you gotta have a big pitcher move coming now. Braves take a chance on a guy who gets hurt getting out of bed, but could also be an impact pitcher destined to prove he can still be a piece.