Chris Sale Traded to Braves from Red Sox; Boston Acquires Vaughn Grissom

The Boston Red Sox agreed to trade veteran starting pitcher Chris Sale to the Atlanta Braves on Saturday in exchange for middle infielder Vaughn Grissom.

The Boston Globe's Alex Speier reported Boston will pick up $17 million of Sale's $27.5 million salary for the 2024 season.

The 34-year-old Sale is a seven-time All-Star and one-time World Series champion who spent the past seven years in Boston.

Injuries have ravaged Sale in recent years, as he has not started 30 or more games in a season since 2017. That included missing the entire 2020 season, all but nine starts in 2021 and all but two starts in 2022.

Last season, Sale was able to make 20 starts, and the power-pitching lefty was solid overall, going 6-5 with a 4.30 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 125 strikeouts over 102.2 innings.

Sale, who is tops in MLB history with 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings, was an All-Star every year from 2012 when he was with the Chicago White Sox through 2018, which was his second year in Boston.

During that stretch, Sale finished sixth or better in the American League Cy Young Award voting each time, including a career-best second in 2017 when he led the AL with a career-high 308 strikeouts.

Assuming Sale can stay healthy, he will be an important part of a Braves rotation that also includes Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton and Max Fried. Bryce Elder and Reynaldo López are also rotation options.

Bolstered by arguably one of the greatest lineups in baseball history, the Braves had the best record in MLB last season at 104-58, but they fell in the National League Division Series of the playoffs, and starting pitching was arguably the biggest culprit.

In exchange for Sale, the Red Sox are receiving a 22-year-old infielder in Grissom who could potentially be a key part of Boston's lineup immediately.

As a rookie in 2022, Grissom appeared in 41 games for the Braves, slashing .291/.353/.440 with five home runs and 18 RBI.

Grissom was widely expected to be the Braves' starting shortstop in 2023, but he lost the job to Orlando Arcia, who hit .264 with 17 home runs and 65 RBI en route to his first career All-Star selection.

Grissom played just 23 MLB games, hitting .280 with no homers and nine RBI. However, he raked in 102 games at the Triple-A level, hitting .330 with eight home runs and 61 RBI.

With Boston not widely expected to contend for a playoff spot in the stacked AL East in 2024, acquiring Grissom is a move that could be huge for the future, while also helping in the present.