Pitcher Chris Sale got a significant upgrade in his baseball accommodations last week, getting traded from the Boston Red Sox to the Atlanta Braves. The 13-year veteran goes from a Red Sox club that won 78 games and finished fifth in the AL East last season to a Braves team that compiled the best record in MLB with 104 wins. Sale also received a two-year, $38 million contract extension from Atlanta with a club option for the 2026 season. So the benefits for Sale in the deal are obvious. He’ll pitch for a much better team that will contend for a World Series championship while getting paid an extra $18 million in guaranteed salary. However, Sale also felt that he was helping a Red Sox organization that’s been very good to him and his family by accepting the trade, as he explained to the Boston Globe’s Conor Ray. “I felt like this was an opportunity to put me in a situation to help myself and put [the Red Sox] in a situation to help them, too,” he explained. “I felt like I kind of owed them something because the last few years haven’t quite lived up to what I wanted to be there. It was in favor to both parties.” The Red Sox have a rebuilding project ahead with new chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. In addition to financial relief, trading Sale also yielded a possible future cornerstone with infielder Vaughn Grissom.
Sale could have vetoed the deal with his no-trade clause. But perhaps he felt it was time to move on after seven years with the Red Sox, as well. He was part of a World Series championship team in 2018, which means he’ll always be royalty in Boston. For Sale and the Red Sox, it’s probably better to keep the memories positive.
