The trade of 2024 National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale keeps looking worse and worse for the Boston Red Sox. On Wednesday, the team announced they’d optioned infielder Vaughn Grissom to minor league camp along with pitchers Luis Guerrero and Josh Winckowski. The 20 pounds of muscle he reported adding in the offseason apparently weren’t enough to win a Major League job.
Grissom was the only player acquired in exchange for Sale in the 2024 offseason. According to Major League Trade Rumors, the 24-year-old hit .190/.246/.219 without a home run in 114 plate appearances for the Red Sox last season while missing time with hamstring strains in both legs. This spring didn’t prove much better for the former prospect.
Selected by the Braves in the 11th round of the 2019 MLB Draft, Grissom quickly showcased his potential. In 2022, he was ranked among the Braves’ top prospects, placing seventh according to MLB.com and twelfth by Baseball America. He was expected to compete for the Red Sox starting second base job this spring, but he hit .176 in 14 games for the major league team in camp.
The good news is Grissom remains on Boston’s 40-man roster despite his poor play and numerous setbacks. That indicates that the Red Sox still see potential in him and could use him as a stopgap or injury replacement later in the season if he performs well in the minors.
The bad news is he’s seemingly blocked at second base on the Red Sox major league depth chart by at least three other players: David Hamilton, Kristian Campbell, and Marcelo Mayer, each of whom remain in major league camp, while his MLB stock continues to plummet.
“It doesn’t matter who’s (at spring training) or what the situation is, I feel like I’m good for it,” Grissom told The Athletic’s Chad Jennings last month. “I’ve got my confidence back.”
“Leaving Boston wasn’t easy. I’ve been there for a long time. It was a second home to me,” Sale told Boston.com after the trade in January of 2024. “My family loved it, my kids loved it, and [Boston] treated my family the best. It was great. But at the same time, I felt like I went through some really tough times there, and they always had my back.”
Kudos to the Braves, who may have been the only team in baseball who foresaw Cy Young-caliber potential in Sale after his uneven stint in Boston.
