ESPN MLB insider Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports”
The Atlanta Braves acquired left-hander Chris Sale from the Boston Red Sox for infielder Vaughn Grissom on Saturday, shoring up their rotation with the seven-time All-Star they hope rounds out a World Series-caliber roster.
Sale waived his no-trade clause to consummate the deal, which followed months of efforts from the Braves to add a starting pitcher to a rotation that already includes Spencer Strider, Max Fried and Charlie Morton. Although Grissom had been part of prospective trades this winter, including offers for Chicago White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease, he wound up being what it took to get Sale, who will go to Atlanta along with $17 million to offset his $27.5 million salary in 2024, per sources.
Sale, 34, is coming off his best season since 2019, having posted a 4.30 ERA in 102⅔ innings with 125 strikeouts, 29 walks and 15 home runs allowed. From 2020 to 2022, Sale threw only 48⅓ innings. Tommy John surgery kept him out in 2020 and most of 2021, and a rib injury delayed his 2022 debut for months, only for a comebacker to break his left pinkie in his first start back and end his season.
Sale’s stuff, although not as dynamic as his exceptional peak, remains well above average, and Atlanta will insert him into a rotation that’s among the best in baseball. The Braves opened the offseason as World Series favorites, but the Los Angeles Dodgers edged ahead of Atlanta after their signings of two-way star Shohei Ohtani and right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Sale, who is 120-80 with a 3.10 ERA and the highest strikeout rate ever for a starting pitcher — 11.1 per nine innings, against just 2.1 walks per nine — has been one of the finest pitchers of his generation and is set to reach free agency after 2024.
The Braves, stocked with All-Stars at seven of nine offensive positions and coming off a brutal division series exit after a 104-win regular season, have been the most active team in baseball this winter. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has made nine trades this winter and moved around tens of millions of dollars, all in an attempt to upgrade his team in the middle of a rare window.
No team has negotiated the long-term-contract business as well as the Braves. Among those locked up: reigning National League MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. (through 2028), third baseman Austin Riley (2033), first baseman Matt Olson (2030), second baseman Ozzie Albies (2027), center fielder Michael Harris II (2032), catcher Sean Murphy (2029) and Strider (2029), who finished fourth in Cy Young voting this year.
With no clear path for Grissom to get regular at-bats — he has played outfield, too, but the trade for Jarred Kelenic gave Atlanta its left fielder — he became expendable. Grissom, who turns 23 this week, made his big league debut in 2022 after just 22 games above Class A. He looked every bit the part of a major leaguer over his first 26 games, hitting .347/.398/.558 while filling in for an injured Albies. After Dansby Swanson left for the Chicago Cubs in free agency, Grissom entered 2023 hopeful to replace him at shortstop. Orlando Arcia won the job in spring training, and Grissom spent most of the season at Triple-A, where he hit .330/.419/.501 playing mostly shortstop. In limited big league time, he hit .280/.313/.347 but struggled defensively at shortstop.
Grissom could fill the Red Sox’s open second-base job, which has been a subject of discontent from an increasingly agitated Boston fan base. After a winter in which they’d spent only $1 million, new Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow made his first big signing, giving right-hander Lucas Giolito a two-year, $38.5 million contract that includes an opt-out after the first season.
Boston immediately pivoted in another direction, moving Sale seven years after acquiring him in a blockbuster trade that sent top prospects Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech to the White Sox, where Sale spent his first seven major league seasons. Sale arrived in 2017 as Boston’s ace, finishing second in American League Cy Young voting, and in 2018 closed out the team’s World Series victory against the Dodgers. Over the past four seasons, as Sale missed significant time, the Red Sox finished in last place in the AL East three times.
The Braves, who won the 2021 World Series, will enter 2024 with perhaps their deepest pitching staff under Anthopoulos. In addition to Strider, Fried, Sale and Morton, there’s a panoply of worthy contenders for the fifth rotation spot. After watching Texas weather pitching injuries en route to a World Series title, the Braves’ starting depth is enviable. It includes their only free agent signing this winter — right-hander Reynaldo Lopez, who was guaranteed $30 million over three years — plus 2023 All-Star Bryce Elder, top prospect A.J. Smith-Shawver, World Series hero Ian Anderson and, perhaps later in the season, 2023 first-round pick Hurston Waldrep.
LEBANON, Tenn. — Brad Keselowski said RFK Racing has made some small changes and talked about the “complexities” and team burdens under the NASCAR rulebook after an appeal reduced a penalty given to driver Chris Buescher and his team at Kansas Speedway.
Keselowski compared the NASCAR rulebook a bit to the IRS tax code during practice and qualifying Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway for Sunday night’s Cracker Barrel 400.
“You read this paper and then you got to reference this paper to reference this paper to reference this paper, and when your head’s down and digging and you’re running 38 weeks a year, oversights are going to happen,” Keselowski said.
The co-owner of RFK Racing said that’s not an excuse. Keselowski said the team changed some roles and responsibilities this week to help the team be “better prepared and more mindful of what it takes to to be in compliance.”
NASCAR penalized Buescher and his team May 15 for illegal modifications to the bumper of his No. 17 Ford at Kansas. The team was docked 60 driver points, 60 owner points, five driver playoff points and five owner playoff points for the level one violation. It also fined the team $75,000 and suspended crew chief Scott Graves from the next two races: the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600.
Those penalties came three days after Buescher finished eighth at Kansas and dropped him from 12th to 24th in the Cup Series point standings.
RFK Racing appealed and had a partial win Wednesday with the appeals panel ruling the team violated the rule on the front bumper cover but not the exhaust cover panel.
Buescher got back 30 points, moving him to 16th in the Cup Series points standing. That’s a slot below the playoff cutline and six points behind RFK Racing teammate Ryan Preece.
SEWELL, N.J. — A few days after brothers John and Matthew Gaudreau died when they were struck by a driver while riding bicycles on the eve of their sister Katie’s wedding, family friends were visiting parents Guy and Jane at their home during a rainstorm. Looking outside after the skies cleared, they saw a double rainbow that brought them some momentary peace.
Since then, Jane Gaudreau had not gotten any signs she attributed to her sons, so she sat in their room Friday and asked them for some divine intervention to clear out bad weather in time for an event to honor their legacies. After a brief scare of a tornado watch the night before, a rainbow appeared Saturday morning about an hour before the sun came out for the inaugural Gaudreau Family 5K Walk/Run and Family Day.
“I was so relieved,” Jane said. “I was like, ‘Well, there’s my sign.'”
Thousands attended the event at Washington Lake Park in southern New Jersey, a place John and Matthew went hundreds of times as kids and around the corner from Hollydell Ice Arena, where they started playing hockey. Roughly 1,100 people took part in a walk or run in person, along with more than 1,300 virtually in the U.S., Canada and around the world.
“I think it speaks to them as a family, how close they were and how everybody loved being around them,” said Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, one of a handful of NHL players who were close to the Gaudreaus and made a point to be there. “You just see the support from this community and from other players as well that are here and traveled in. It just says a lot about Johnny, Matty, their legacy and this family as a whole, how much support they have because they’re such amazing people.”
Along with honoring the NHL star known as “Johnny Hockey” and his younger brother who family and friends called Matty, the goal of the event was to raise money for an accessible playground at Archbishop Damiano School where Jane and her daughter Kristen work. It was a cause John and Matthew had begun to champion in honor of their grandmother Marie, who spent 44 years at the school and died in 2023.
It became their mother’s project after their deaths.
“Jane works every day with children with disabilities, and she knew how important it was for the playground to be built,” said family friend Deb Vasutoro, who came up with the idea for a 5K. “The playground has been a project for, I think, four or five years, and there just never was enough funding. When the boys passed and Jane needed a purpose, she thought, ‘Let’s build the playground.’ It was the perfect marriage of doing something good to honor the boys and seeing children laugh and smile.”
The Rev. Allain Caparas from Gloucester Catholic High School, which the brothers attended and played hockey for while growing up in Carneys Point, said raising funds for the playground is an extension of the impact they had on the community.
“They’re continuing to make a difference in the lives of so many others,” Caparas said. “Johnny and Matthew lived their lives with purpose, and now we’re celebrating that.”
Social media filled with mentions from folks in Columbus and Calgary, the NHL cities in which John Gaudreau played, and as far away as Ireland and Sweden. Paul O’Connor, who has been tight with the Gaudreau family from son Dalton being childhood best friends with Matthew, couldn’t empty out his inbox because he kept getting notifications about signups and donations.
“It just keeps growing,” O’Connor said. “And people that couldn’t be here, they’re doing a virtual [5K]. If they can’t do either, they’re just throwing money at the cause.”
Tears welled up in the eyes of Guy and Jane as they talked about the event. His speech to the crowd was brief and poignant at the same time.
“I’d like to thank everybody for coming,” Guy said after running the 5K. “It really means a lot to Jane and the girls and the family. We miss the boys, and it really means a lot for us to have you here to honor my boys. Thank you.”
The sea of people first in the rain and then the sunshine included folks in gear from all across hockey. Tkachuk wore a “Johnny Hockey” hoodie with Gaudreau’s name and No. 13 on the back.
He handed sticks, collected from various vigils in late August and early September, to race winners along with fellow players Erik Gudbranson, Zach Aston-Reese, Tony DeAngelo and Buddy Robinson.
“Our family wouldn’t have missed this,” Gudbranson said after flying in Friday night following a trip to Walt Disney World. “Hockey’s a very tight community. It’s still a tragedy. We miss the boys.”
The aim is to hold the event annually moving forward, potentially in Calgary and Columbus.
“We thought this was such a good thing to honor the boys we want to keep it up,” Jane said. “I just think each year it’ll just get better and better.”
Panthers forward A.J. Greer‘s status for the series opener against the Oilers remains uncertain. He missed Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals and was on the ice for only 4:22 in Game 5 due to a lower-body injury.
All three players did not participate in Saturday’s practice, the first team skate since the defending champions booked their spot in the Final rematch.
“I think the only question mark is Greer,” Maurice said. “We will list him as day to day. The other guys are fine. They will be back on the ice tomorrow when we do a little bit of an optional.”
Luostarinen, 26, recorded 24 points (9 goals, 15 assists) in 80 games during the regular season and 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists) in 17 games this postseason.
Lundell, 23, tallied 45 points (17 goals, 28 assists) in 79 games in the regular season and 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists) in 17 playoff games.
Greer, 28, posted 17 points (6 goals, 11 assists) in 81 games in the regular season and three points (2 goals, 1 assist) in 12 playoff contests.