The Braves needed to bolster the rotation this offseason, and Alex Anthopoulos did so via a trade with the Red Sox — Vaughn Grissom for Chris Sale, straight up.
Boston was willing to send the All-Star to Atlanta along with $17 million in exchange for Grissom, but only one of the clubs is happy at this juncture. Let me preface this by saying it’s far too early to consider the Braves winners and the Red Sox losers: However, Chris Sale is off to arguably the best start of his career, while Vaughn Grissom is struggling in his new threads.
In Sale’s last outing, he went seven scoreless innings against the Padres, which extended his scoreless innings streak to 20. Over his last five starts, he boasts a 0.56 ERA with 43 strikeouts in 32 innings.
On the season, Chris Sale owns a 2.22 ERA to go with a 2.23 FIP and 0.865 WHIP while striking out 31.7% of the batters he’s faced and walking just 3.6%. As for Grissom, the Red Sox had hoped they were trading a player who has struggled with injuries in recent years for a young, durable one. That hasn’t been the case thus far.
Grissom’s injury delayed his Red Sox debut, and it’s certainly contributed to the sting from Sale’s turnaround for Red Sox fans. Since returning, Grissom owns a putrid -10 OPS+ across 14 games.
It’s a tiny sample size, and I believe Vaughn Grissom will eventually turn into the .280-ish batter that he was in Atlanta. However, it’s impossible not to see how each player is performing with their new club.
Red Sox fans have to be sick seeing Chris Sale healthy and thriving in Atlanta, while Vaughn Grissom struggles. If Sale’s success continues, it could go down as the best trade of Alex Anthopoulos’ tenure as Braves general manager.
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