It seems that hardly a day goes by where Craig Breslow isn’t wheeling and dealing anymore…
After finally getting the ball rolling with his first major signing of Lucas Giolito on Friday, the Red Sox’ new chief baseball officer nudged the throttle forward even more on Saturday by trading away one of the team’s biggest stars and filling a major need in the process.
OK, Craig. OK…
Chris Sale’s legacy in Boston will always be that of a World Series champion — first and foremost. The defining memory that should come to mind when you reminisce about Sale’s time in Boston is… well, I’ll let Joe Buck take it from here.
“Here comes a 1-2 pitch … Red Sox win the World Series! 5-1 the final tonight, and the best team in baseball wins it all in 2018.”
Watching the replay of Sale throwing his trademark unhittable slider to strike out the Dodgers’ Manny Machado and clinch Boston’s fourth title of the 21st century is the perfect encapsulation of the lanky left-hander: the desire and intensity on his face, putting everything he had into every pitch, and a willingness to do whatever it takes.
That was Chris Sale at his finest. A flamethrower. An ace’s ace. A competitor’s competitor.
One of Sale’s greatest strengths may have also been his greatest weakness, however. This was a guy who didn’t know how to pitch at anything less than 110 percent. He’d empty the tank on every pitch. And as the years started to pile up, his body started to let him down.
An ill-advised contract extension and a groan-inducing injury history are certainly part of Sale’s story in Boston, too. But there’s no doubt that Dave Dombrowski’s trade of Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech and others for Sale was anything but a win for the Red Sox. Sale helped you win a World Series. Period. End of discussion.
Dombrowski’s Sale trade was a good one. But Breslow’s is, too. It was simply time. Much as we all appreciated Sale’s “cut-through-the-crap” mindset, his constant accountability and desire to be great for his team and teammates, it became a tiring refrain to hear again and again following every setback or season-ending injury.
Sale was no longer a pitcher you could count on to be out on the bump every fifth day, and to count on his availability as part of your strategy to win was a plan to fail. Is it all Sale’s fault? No, but Breslow calling a spade and spade and realizing it was time to move on should be commended.
“Anytime you trade someone like Sale, it’s obviously a really, really tough baseball decision,” Breslow said in a post-trade Zoom availability with reporters on Saturday night. “In the end, I thought this was a decision that was best for the Red Sox.”
It’s also a win for Sale, who had to waive his no-trade clause to make the deal happen. Breslow said Sale was amenable to the team’s desire to move toward the future and was excited about getting the chance to pitch for a perennial National League contender like the Atlanta Braves.
“He would say it was bittersweet because the organization has meant so much to him,” Breslow said of Sale. “These decisions are never easy, but I’m super appreciative of the way that Chris approached it.”
It should also be commended that John Henry’s ownership was willing to eat a chunk of Sale’s contract to move on from him. It doesn’t quite rise to the level of the infamous Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford salary dump in 2012, but it represents hope of a return to a business model that worked quite well for the Red Sox over the past two decades.
Sometimes, you’re going to sign bad deals. But guess what, you’re the Red Sox? You can buy your way out it.
Kudos, John. See, I can say nice things about you, after all…
A Vaughn returns to Fenway
I’m always going to be a fan of the Red Sox acquiring guys named Vaughn…
While it’s probably unrealistic to expect him to have an MVP season like that of Mo Vaughn’s in 1995, there’s reason to be excited about the addition of a soon-to-be 23-year-old Vaughn Grissom to the infield.
🙏🏽🤝🏽 pic.twitter.com/yuJTwqBF9w
— Vaughn Grissom (@GrissomVaughn) December 30, 2023
The plan is for Grissom to be the Red Sox’s everyday second baseman, according to Breslow. It’s a position he should be able to man for years to come: Grissom has six remaining years of team control and comes with some pedigree.
There isn't much not to like about Grissom, if you ask Breslow…
“In Grissom, we saw someone that we felt was a dynamic athlete who could play all over the field and offered a ton of versatility,” he said. “(He’s) someone with a really strong right-handed bat who’s been an elite performer in the minor leagues.”
Although only an 11th-round draft pick in 2019, a promising start to his career in the minors earned Grissom a spot as one of the Braves’ top-ranked prospects by MLB.com (seventh) and Baseball America (12th).
In 329 career games across four seasons in the minors, Grissom slashed .320/.407/.477 with 32 home runs, 194 RBIs and 59 stolen bases. Overall, 123 of his 404 hits — or thirty percent — went for extra bases.
It seems Grissom will be able to hold his own defensively, as well. He committed just three errors and boasted a .985 fielding percentage over 424 1/3 innings in 50 games at second base in the minors. Though Grissom primarily played shortstop and had a .952 fielding percentage and 42 errors in 1,972 innings at the position.
And you might remember that Grissom began his big league career in Monster fashion…
Prospect Grissom homers in debut, Braves beat Red Sox 8-4
— Gethin Coolbaugh (@GethinCoolbaugh) August 11, 2022
Hear from @GrissomVaughn in my AP report from @fenwaypark... #VaughnGrissom #ForTheA #DirtyWater #MLB pic.twitter.com/NptbwWtkxe
Grissom’s power prospects have yet to transfer to the majors, although he’s been swinging a good bat in his limited opportunities. He’s played in a total of 64 major league games across two seasons, slashing .287/.339/.407.
What Grissom will become at the major league level remains to be seen. On a talent-for-talent evaluation scale, Sale is obviously a better player than Grissom right now. But Sale’s lack of availability coupled with the Red Sox’s need for an all-around second baseman — and the potential for Grissom to fill that role for a long time and possibly become a top-of-the-lineup hitter — makes this a good trade in my book.
It takes two to tango
As we all know, the stars did not align for the Red Sox and free-agent Japanese pitching phenom Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Breslow on Saturday confirmed that the Red Sox were indeed in on the 25-year-old right-hander who eventually joined Shohei Ohtani on the Los Angeles Dodgers to form baseball’s latest superteam.
How close were the Red Sox to signing Yamamoto? Breslow didn’t shed much light on that…
“Without getting too deep into the details, we pursued a number of starting pitchers, he being one of them,” the CBO said. “Ultimately, it takes both parties to align and it didn’t.”
The good news is it sounds like Breslow and the Red Sox are not done with their attempts to shore up the starting rotation.
“Obviously he’s (Yamamoto) not the only pitcher that that we’re pursuing or that we had pursued,” Breslow said. “Our hope is we can continue to make good decisions that improve the short and long-term outlook for the team.”
That’s an encouraging tidbit, given that most will agree that this week’s signing of Giolito was not going to be enough. Now the Red Sox also have Sale’s (seldomly occupied of late) spot in the rotation to fill. It also leaves the Red Sox without a major league caliber left-handed starter, which makes their long-brewing interest in new Boston resident Jordan Montgomery seems all the more likely to lead to a signing.
But hey, Blake Snell also throws a baseball with his left hand, too…