In a surprising move, the Boston Red Sox announced on Saturday that they have traded starting pitcher Chris Sale to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for infielder Vaughn Grissom.
Breaking down the Chris Sale trade
The Red Sox are also sending cash considerations to the Braves. According to the Boston Globe's Alex Speier, Boston is covering $17 million of Sale's $27.5 million salary for the 2024 season.
Sale spent seven years in Boston, coming over in a trade from the Chicago White Sox in December 2016.
His first two lived up to every bit of the hype, with Sale finishing top-four in Cy Young voting in 2017 and 2018 and helping the Red Sox win the World Series in 2018.
Sale signed a five-year, $145 million extension in March 2019, but trouble soon followed. A down 2019 season came to an end in August due to an elbow injury, which eventually required Tommy John surgery that forced Sale to miss the entire 2020 season.
More injuries have followed in the years since, resulting in Sale making just 31 starts total over the last four seasons. Twenty of those came in 2023, with Sale posting a 6-5 record and 4.30 ERA. He missed two months in the middle of the season with a shoulder injury.
This will be the final year of Sale's five-year contract. The Braves will have a club option for 2025.
Grissom, 22, was considered one of the Braves' top prospects a couple years ago and had a chance to compete for the starting shortstop job last spring following the departure of Dansby Swanson. He came up short, though, and struggled to stick at the Major League level in 2023, appearing in 23 games while hitting .280 with a .659 OPS.
Grissom did produce for Triple-A Gwinnet, though, hitting .330 with eight home runs, 61 RBIs, 74 runs, 13 steals and a .921 OPS in 102 games. He has played mostly shortstop, but also some second base and third base. The Red Sox will obviously be hoping that Grissom can tap into the potential he has shown in the minors and develop into an everyday major-leaguer.
The trade comes one day after the Red Sox signed starting pitcher Lucas Giolito, as new chief baseball officer Craig Breslow remakes Boston's pitching staff.
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