After frustrating injuries, Chris Sale shows hopeful signs

Chris Sale’s contract with the Boston Red Sox expired on the final weekend of 2023.

Not a retirement, but an unexpected trade to the Atlanta Braves for infielder Vaughn Grissom, whom the Red Sox hope will become their long-term second baseman.

Over the weekend, both players trended for different reasons. On Saturday, Grissom was sidelined with a “slight” left groin strain, which is not anticipated to be significant but serious enough to compel manager Alex Cora to warn he is unlikely to start the season on schedule.

A day later, Sale made his second encouraging start with his new team, pitching 2 22/3 scoreless innings against the Phillies in a preseason clash between the NL East’s top two teams.

“I want to be what I’m supposed to be for this team and make all of my offseason work worthwhile,” Sale told reporters in North Port, Fla., on Sunday. “There is still some work to do. There are still some issues to work out. But I like where we are and the path we’re on.”

The deal illustrates opposing viewpoints for both parties.

Sale is one of the last members of the 2018 title club to depart Boston, with only Rafael Devers remaining. Entering the second season of his 10-year contract, the third baseman hopes his front office does more to help a team coming off consecutive 78-win seasons.

Grissom is considered as a potential young piece to accompany the multiple prospects the Red Sox are touting, and the Braves have enough major league players to feel comfortable moving him.

And in acquiring Sale, the Braves hope he will be the starter to pull them over the hump and through a Division Series.

In 2022, Atlanta was the defending World Series champion and had a 5.82 ERA against the Phillies after defeating the Mets for the Division title on the last weekend. Last year, it was 4.50 versus the Phillies in the Division Series.

Sale is essentially a bargain for the Braves, who are hoping he has anything left in the last year of a $160 million six-year contract inked with the Red Sox in March 2019. When the deal was finalized, the Associated Press disclosed the cost to the Braves was around $500,000, with the Red Sox paying the Braves $8.5 million in two installments on April 1 and July 1.

And, immediately after receiving financial assistance from the Red Sox, the Braves restructured Sale’s contract for two years and $38 million, which includes a 2026 club option, citing his 3.92 ERA in his final nine starts of last season as encouraging.

Sale’s initial deal with the Red Sox was signed after he threw the final pitch of the 2018 World Series by striking out Manny Machado at Dodger Stadium and it was a deal agreed to by current Phillies GM Dave Dombrowski, who would be fired late at night in September 2019. Dombrowski gave up three prospects to get Sale following the 2016 season and then Sale made 56 starts under the new deal.

He missed the entire 2019 2020 season and did not return until August 2021. In 2022, he made two starts because he didn’t make his season debut until July due to a fractured rib and subsequently broke a finger on Aaron Hicks’ line drive on July 17 at Yankee Stadium.

Nonetheless, the results over the last two months were encouraging enough for the Braves to sign Sale to team up with emerging studs Spencer Strider and Max Fried. And the early returns are favorable, just as they are for Luis Severino and the Mets.