Top Prospect Dreams Dashed! Alex Bregman Signing Put Ex-Braves Phenom Career in Jeopardy
Out of all of the trades and signings Alex Anthopoulos has been praised for, the Braves trade for Chris Sale has to be the best of the bunch, sending top prospect Vaughn Grissom to Boston in exchange for Sale.
Some criticized the trade, pointing out Sale’s extensive injury history, but the veteran entered the offseason healthy for the first time in a half-decade, and the results were better than anybody could have imagined.
Sale recorded a 2.38 ERA with 225 strikeouts to go along with an 18-3 record. He became the first National League pitcher to win the triple crown since Clayton Kershaw did back in 2011, leading to Sale’s first-ever Cy Young award and a seventh-place finish in the National League MVP race.
To make the deal sweeter, the Red Sox sent over $17 million in the deal to acquire Vaughn Grissom, who didn’t have a lot of success in Boston. Grissom battled several injuries, appearing in just 31 games for the Red Sox in 2024, in which he hit just .190 with no homers and a .465 OPS.
To make matters worse, Grissom’s career with the Red Sox may not last much longer. Boston just signed Alex Bregman to a three-year, $120 million contract, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan revealed the “expectation” with Bregman is to slot in at second base.
“The expectation is Alex Bregman will play second base for Boston, sources tell ESPN,” Passan said. “Even though the Red Sox have top prospect Kristian Campbell coming, they saw Bregman having enough of an impact that they offered $40 million a year — with deferrals — to make the deal happen.”
Kristian Campbell is one of the top prospects in baseball and is right on the precipice of getting called up. In an ideal world, I imagine the Red Sox would like to have Bregman at third base, Campbell at second base and Devers at first base or DH.
Regardless of the configuration, former Braves top prospect Vaughn Grissom’s standing with the Red Sox is in limbo.
