Braves Country has wondered all winter what the Sale price would be for Vaughn Grissom. Today, AA set the price, trading Grissom to the BoSox for veteran LH SP Chris Sale, plus $17 million!
Grissom touted
Grissom was touted as the heir-apparent when Dansby Swanson was allowed to walk and receive a massive contract from the Cubs last winter. He filled in for Ozzie Albies when Albies was injured, hitting .291 with five home runs in 2022. The lanky middle-infielder seemed to be the odds-on favorite to win the shortstop job heading into Spring Training 2023. However, seemingly out of nowhere, Grissom and Braden Shewmake were both sent to AAA-Gwinnett in favor of Orlando Arcia, who had an All-Star season
The Stripers were the beneficiary of Grissom’s services throughout 2023. The 23 year-old raked in AAA, slashing .330/.419/.501. He had 36 doubles, 8 HRs, and 4 triples there. Grissom loves the Braves and this will be a bitter pill for the young man to swallow. He was willing to do anything for the team he loves, including going to Gwinnett last year and being willing to try his luck in the outfield.
AA went on record early this off-season, explaining his belief that Grissom’s bat will play at the MLB level. Grissom has been the primary bargaining chip throughout the winter, and the Braves used him to get their man today.
Sale price
The Sale price? A 34 year-old lefty starter who is a seven-time All-Star. Sale has a lifetime record of 120-80, with a 3.10 ERA. In 2023, he was 6-5 in 20 starts for the Red Sox. Sale logged 102.2 innings with a 1.130 WHIP. Obviously, at this stage of his career, Sale’s stuff isn’t what it once was, but he brings great value to the rotation.
For seven seasons (2012-2018) Sale was one of the best in the game. In six of those seven seasons, the former 21st round selection was top five in Cy Young voting, twice winning as many as 17 games. He has a career 11.1 K/9 ratio and just 2.1 BB/9.
Sale will be be paid $27.5MM this year, with the Sox paying some of that contract. Then, in 2025, the Braves have a club option for $20MM. The dude waived his no trade clause to allow the deal to go through. He wants to pitch for the Braves, and he makes the Braves better.
The fact that Lucas Giolito got a 2/$48.5 deal yesterday makes me pretty excited about this deal. I like Grissom, but I like AJ Smith-Shawver and Hurston Waldrep more. I believe those boys both have top-of-the-rotation futures ahead of them, so not dealing them along with Grissom for someone like Dylan Cease or Corbin Burnes is a win. I’m grateful that AA is a cheat code.
Give me Kevin Pillar to back up Jared Kelenic and let’s Chop On!
If he stays healthy, Sale moves the needle. I like that all we need to do now is replace the util OF. Like Ryan says, Pillar might do but so would Duvall or a number of others. In FG projections the Braves pitching is up and the offense is still top of the line. If we can get one more WAR somewhere (it would be nice in projection but, if Kelenic breaks out, we could get it there), we would be right back where we were offensively and improved in pitching significantly.
With regards to next year, Sale can be the Morton replacement unit while either AJSS or Waldrep could be ready to replace Fried. Anderson and Ynoa could be back or any of Vines, Dodd, or Winans (and Elder, of course) could break out. It is a great win-now move while planning for the future. The main thing is for Sale to stay healthy.
This is as good a deal as we can possibly imagine. I am a Max-extension away from being genuinely happy with the entire situation but we are definitely set for the 2024 season. Amazing job by AA. Incredible.
Yup, with Sale, it’s simply about health.
If we get more than the 20 starts & 100 IP he had last year, it’ll be a big help.
if we get exactly the 20 starts and 100 innings he had last year, but four of them are in the playoffs, that’s all that matters.
Keep Sale in bubbles until second half of the season.
It’s kind of a weird feeling that the roster is basically done. All the boxes are checked except one or maybe two bench spots. They probably have to be minimum salary guys. Any ideas? Josh Donaldson as an option?
I think it’s down to one. If Fletcher is the util IF then we need a RH OF for both defense and platoon. Kelenic and Harris are both LH so we need a RH bat to balance. The top of my list might be Michael A. Taylor if he can be had cheap. Someone (Ryan?) suggested Kyle Lewis earlier in the offseason. He may actually have similar upside to Kelenic. Whoever we get is gonna have to be cheap with upside. I could live with an old fogie like Pillar or Duvall or several others (heck, Luplow is still out there).
I agree that adding a fourth outfielder would be a wise move. I wouldn’t be surprised if they added a veteran utility outfielder. Aaron Hicks is available and can probably be signed for very little money. He’s definitely not the rangiest guy, but he’s got a strong arm, can play multiple OF positions, and is actually coming off of a decent season at the plate (109 wRC+ in 312 PA, although he did significantly outhit his xwOBA). Spotrac has his market value at just under $1M.
I’d love to have Duvall back, but I wonder if he’s going to be searching for a full-time starting job. Robbie Grossman is another former Braves who’s out there. I wouldn’t mind a reunion with him at the right price.
I don’t like giving up on VG. I’ll admit I have a irrational love for Grissom so this may not be a sane take, but I considered him untouchable. Does he have a position? No. The question is, should he. I think he can fricking hit, and that counts more in my mind than any stats. We shall see. I think odds are that Sale won’t contribute hardly anything. It’s a risk. I think we gave up VG for literally nothing. Hope I’m wrong.
I’m with you to some degree. I think it would have been a lot simpler to just put Vaughn in LF and spend that sunk salary money towards a pitching rental. I think something in the plan somewhere went wrong.
All that being said, I trust AA’s judgement. He knows things we don’t.
What sunk salary money? The Braves are on the hook for $500K for Sale this year and the rest of the $10M is deferred. This was an incredibly cheap (in terms of money) pickup of an ace caliber pitcher. With the exception of losing Grissom and spending a few bucks on Kelenic, Lopez, and Fletcher, AA has resolved all issues with the roster without much significant loss. I have been thinking about it and not only are we set for this year now, but set up in a lot of ways for the future (assuming we aren’t saddled with a new Hamels).
Think about it. Kelenic could be a long term solution in LF. Sale could be the Morton replacement unit, we have a year to figure out if AJSS and/or Waldrep can replace Fried, we have Perdomo and Bummer in case we lose Minter. What else is there? Alvarez or Tavarez might be able to take over for Arcia. Baldwin or Tolve should be able to take over for TdA. Anderson, Ynoa, Matzek, Burkhalter, Lee, Murfee are all on the mend. This is a great situation and has been set up exceptionally well by AA. Not to mention future draft and international potential (and Guanipa and Glod developing). Further, the Braves could be shedding a LOT of salary next year with Ozuna, Morton, TdA (and possibly Fried and Minter) coming off the books.
I was referring to the money being paid out to Marco Gonzales, Evan White, Max Stassi and David Fletcher.
Don’t need Kelenic if Vaughn can play LF.
If they thought Sale were an ace caliber pitcher, they wouldn’t be complaining. I think he can be–11 K/9 and a 4:1 K:BB ratio is still ace level, though not CY level. But the injury history has to worry you. There is a significant chance we get next to nothing out of Sale and gave up the career of Vaughn Grissom for that.
Wow. Kelenic is every bit the prospect Grissom is (was). Now we have both Kelenic and Sale. Even-steven save a couple of bucks.
Any combo of Ozuna, Morton or TDA coming off the books gives us more dough to sign Fried.
Happy New Year and Frohes Neues Jahr! Grissom seems like the nicest guy ever and I hate losing people like that, however, Chris Sale. Yes. Talking about nice people, I just met Jeff Francoeur in the hotel I’m staying at. Scored a selfie with him. This will be a great year for the Braves!
Nice. Frenchy is a class act. Happy new year.
Sale was healthy the last 2 months of the season, so in that way, he was similar to Glasnow, another guy with injury risk but had a good stretch of health. Someone may be able to dissect the deals for 2 years of Sale vs 1 year of Glasnow, but at first glance, I think we got better value.
Grissom did not have a position with us predominantly because he doesn’t have a position. He’s a shortstop who struggles to play shortstop, and his bat may not carry in LF, so his trade value is difficult to assess.
I think Grissom has the bat to stick around in MLB, but I don’t know if it is a bat that you’ll regret not having around. In the limited amount of Statcast data on him, he projects as a good contact hitter but not much power. Maybe the power develops. I think the regret risk is low.
If you get 125-150 IP out of Sale at a 3 WAR clip in 2024, I think the trade is a massive success. It also has the risk of blowing up in their faces a la Cole Hamels. I’m a little surprised that Grissom was ultimately cashed in for Sale, but it makes sense, and I guess packaging Grissom in a larger trade dipped too far into the limited legit prospect depth in the minors.
I will admit my feelings are 100% “our-prospect” bias. Every fan likes their own team’s prospects more than others.
But as I said before, I trust in AA.