Which Braves forums are you looking at? At my own preferred Braves site, the most-recommended posts are pretty positive about the trade:
To each his own, but these reasons are all after he was here for a number of seasons and yet you said you "never" loved or enjoyed rooting for him. So, you didn't enjoy rooting for him when he was 29-12 the first 2 seasons, culminating in a WS?
Yes, I understand that. But Cora had no say as to what players could/should do and I believe he stated that it was a personal decision for all players.
What’s his current injury? People go way over the top with this, but whatever. The Braves just bet a decent prospect on him making some reasonable number of starts. They have his medicals.
Given the question marks around both players, its hard to see a clear winner unless you are using models or whatever.
That seems like the ticket. The Braves have made the playoffs for 6 straight seasons. They want to punch their ticket to another World Series. Buying a potential postseason ace is worth quite a lot to them. Grissom is a guy with a weird fit for their roster. Also didn't realize how huge Grissom is. At 6'3 he's two inches taller than Chase Utley.
Honestly I see this as a win/win/win. Sox move Sale, perhaps less cash than some might have thought it would take and get a pretty good prospect in return, the Braves get a guy who is no worse than a #3 now when he's healthy for short cash and Sale moves on to one of the best organizations in baseball with the opportunity were the only expectations are to come in and do his best with an incredibly talented team backing him up.
Yeah, agree. They have a margin of error to handle a guy who hasn’t made all his starts in a while. Gambling on the upside but not hurt if it doesn’t happen. I’m fine with him going, even though I was probably more comfortable than some counting on him. Even if his health holds up, he hasn’t been irreplaceable in terms of his quality. And we don’t have the same error margin if he does miss time.
Yeah good points- even with the limited innings, Sale was more than 2x as valuable as Giolito last year, and projected to be worth more this year. Of course, it’s all about what happens next and it seems likely that a long term SP is added relatively soon. Fascinating deal for a lot of reasons.
Crazy talk, I know, but given his size, power potential, handedness and arm strength, would RF be a logical landing spot for him with the Sox?
So why did they go get Kelenic, then?
I don't know the details about the aggregators.... but wasn't that based on him making 27.5M?
I agree with this. On the hand Sale's mere presence on the roster was an albatross - we where always in wait mode.
If he is truly injury prone, he’s not worth much. But I do think that people are underestimating the 2025 club option. Some have even gone so far as to say that Atlanta is only getting a “one year” player.
For my money it’s a great trade. A 2bman who can hit with 6 years of control for an oft injured pitcher and $$. Am already looking forward to CB’s next deal.
Hmmph, fine. I bet that has the club option baked in too.
Agree about the stress fracture concerns and the real possibility he will never have a mostly healthy season again. Low floor, high ceiling risky guy for sure.
The option definitely adds some value for Atlanta, no doubt about that. But there is also a decent chance it's not picked up.
Yeah, I agree. That said, I think this looks like a move that is more about a focus on the nebulous "future" than on winning next year and that goes against what a lot of Sox fans wanted this offseason. Chris Sale led the team in FIP last year (among starters) and, despite his limitations, was one of the few +2 fWAR players on a team that is in desperate need of starting pitching. If Sale can do something similar next year, it seems pretty likely that Sale will be the more valuable player than Grissom in 24' (especially when you consider Grissom's defensive problems). But Grissom is still young and the team has 6 years of control, so he has more value long-term. So yeah, this trade (in a vacuum) makes it look like the team will continue to focus on building assets for the future, even if that goes against contention next season. That's fine by me, as I don't think this team is good enough to realistically compete next year, either way, but I worry that there might be a lot of disgruntled fans if these type of moves is all that comes out of the offseason.
I think this is a pretty good summation but I really like that he is a 2b option. Lots of discussion this offseason about signing or trading for one. I much prefer this path for the upside alone, whatever position he ends up at.
They have Nick Yorke, a 2020 1st round pick in the Sox Top 10 prospects who has flirted with Top 100 lists. I believe Duran and Raffaela had also flirted with MI play as well. I think a lot of teams aim for SS and bounce them out if needed
Presumably, Nick Yorke was set to start the season at AAA, though now he's a(n even more) logical trade candidate. Of course, opinions vary on him, too.
You mean the one who had a 207 OPS for the Nationals after they picked him up from the Sox off waivers? /s
There is this one from the 2022 off-season suggesting a team was willing to take on the full deal and send a “semblance” of players, though I doubt Vaughn Grissom was in that convo
They have Nick Yorke and Mikey Romero but they're not ready for the big leagues yet.
I wouldn’t discard Yorke as a prospect. He has been streaky and a bit hampered by injuries but he still has promise and his defense is serviceable.
It's a good question on why they preferred Kelenic over Grissom. Probably because Kelenic was cheap and it allowed them to trade Grissom for needed pitching. Also I suppose Kelenic has that theoretical upside that folks in Seattle got sick of dreaming about.
