On Saturday, as many teams were preparing for New Year’s Eve celebrations, the Atlanta Braves and the Boston Red Sox were on the phone working on a trade.
They agreed to send Chris Sale to the reigning NL East champs, and infielder Vaughn Grissom to the Sox.
Atlanta had been looking for pitching help ever since the offseason started, adding Aaron Bummer via trade and Reynaldo Lopez (who could be a starter or reliever depending on what the team needs) in free agency.
However, they needed to make a splash and bring in a proven ace that can dominate an entire lineup any given night when healthy, and that’s Sale.
Even though health hasn’t been there for most of the last four seasons, he remains a supremely talented pitcher.
He is so good that MLB analyst Eduardo Perez says adding him makes the Braves better than the Los Angeles Dodgers, even after bringing in Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
“I think he (Sale) is going to have that bounceback year, get back that swing and miss stuff. You got four completely dominating looks when healthy in that staff (Sale, Spencer Strider, Max Fried and Charlie Morton). This is the best team in the National League, bar none. They are better than the Dodgers. The battle in the NL East right now is for second place,” he said, per MLB Network Radio.
“They’re better than the Dodgers with Shohei Ohtani.”
After trading for seven-time All-Star Chris Sale, @PerezEd is confident that the National League still runs through Atlanta. @Braves | #Braves | #HotStove pic.twitter.com/rZssTdgRTF
— MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (@MLBNetworkRadio) January 2, 2024
Sale hasn’t been able to win any Cy Young awards even though he deserved a couple.
However, he is a seven-time All-Star who happens to have a brilliant 3.10 ERA for his career.
In 2023 with the Red Sox, he pitched 102.2 innings of a 4.30 ERA, with 125 strikeouts.
He is still very effective, even after Tommy John surgery and a series of injuries he has suffered in recent seasons.
He figures to be a crucial part of the Braves’ plans for 2024.
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