The Atlanta Braves have acquired storied left-handed starter Chris Sale and $17 million in money issues from the Boston Crimson Sox in alternate for younger infielder Vaughn Grissom. The groups introduced the commerce on Saturday afternoon.
Sale, 34, waived his no-trade clause to facilitate the deal. He is slated to make $27.5 million in 2024, the ultimate assured 12 months of his contract. The Braves will probably be chargeable for $10.5 million of that quantity. They’re going to then maintain a membership choice price $20 million on Sale’s companies for the 2025 marketing campaign.
Beneath, CBS Sports activities has supplied evaluation and grades on the deal for each groups.
Braves grade: A
Sale is likely one of the most achieved energetic pitchers within the majors. He is a seven-time All-Star who additionally obtained Cy Younger Award consideration in seven consecutive seasons from 2012-18. Extra not too long ago, he is been hampered by accidents that restricted him to simply 11 appearances from 2020-22. Thankfully, his well being took a flip for the higher final 12 months, as he began 20 instances and amassed a 4.30 ERA (106 ERA+) and a 4.31 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Groups as of late concentrate on two traits particularly with pitchers: suppressing high quality of contact and producing empty swings. Sale can nonetheless do each at above-average clips due to his 94 mph fastball and signature slider. Certainly, he ranked within the 73rd percentile or higher in each common exit velocity in opposition to and whiff fee, in line with Statcast’s calculations. If you happen to knew nothing else about Sale, you’d in all probability really feel respectable about his possibilities of remaining a plus contributor.
That is excellent news for the Braves, who will insert Sale right into a rotation that additionally consists of Spencer Strider, Max Fried, and Charlie Morton. Alternatively, you would possibly really feel uneasy about Atlanta — a group undone final October by ill-timed harm issues — including yet one more starter with sturdiness issues. In a great world, they in all probability would’ve landed somebody like Dylan Stop or Corbin Burnes as a substitute.
The catch is that certainty — or, in terms of pitchers, the phantasm of it — prices extra. Grissom, so clearly with out nation on Atlanta’s depth chart, wouldn’t alone have netted both Stop or Burnes. Perhaps the Braves ought to have ponied up — if, that’s, their farm system was deemed adequate to attract from by the White Sox and/or Brewers — however you may perceive why they took this route as a substitute.
Crimson Sox grade: A
Give new baseball operations boss Craig Breslow credit score. He is prepared to make a daring transfer.
Grissom, 23 on Jan. 5, seemed to be the Braves’ shortstop of the longer term presently final 12 months. These expectations had been set after an introduction to the majors that noticed him publish a 119 OPS+ in 41 video games in 2022. Alas, slightly than take the reins the place departed free agent Dansby Swanson left them, Grissom as a substitute spent many of the season in Triple-A after struggling each on the plate and within the subject.
Grissom batted .330/.419/.501 on the farm, offering ample cause to assume he’ll nonetheless present worth along with his bat. Defensively, it looks as if a settled problem that he isn’t able to being a beginning shortstop. The Crimson Sox will presumably plop him down at second base (with Trevor Story sticking at shortstop) and let him do his factor — an strategy that ought to work in each his and their favor.
On condition that Grissom has oodles extra group management remaining — and will not clear league-minimum compensation for a while to come back — it is truthful to put in writing that it is a transfer for the longer term that may pay dividends within the current. These Crimson Sox aren’t rapid title threats just like the Braves are, in order that’s a smart strategy in our estimation.
The Crimson Sox should once more type out their rotation scenario following Sale’s departure. On Friday, Boston signed veteran starter Lucas Giolito to a two-year contract with the hope that he can bounce again from a down 12 months. Breslow now has extra cause to dip into the free-agent market once more.
