It was Aug. 10, 2022, and the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves were in town for what promised to be among the most interesting series left on the schedule. The floundering Red Sox had fallen three games under .500 and if they harbored any hope of turning their season around, they’d need to start winning big games against teams like this.
Then, in the seventh inning and with the Braves leading 3-1, an unknown rookie stepped to the plate and stunned the Fenway Park crowd.
Vaughn Grissom, batting ninth and making his MLB debut, smoked a two-run home run over the Green Monster, stretching Atlanta’s lead in what ended up being a 8-4 win. Grissom was at the time regarded as one of Atlanta’s top prospects, and since then he’s made the most of the few opportunities he’s gotten in Atlanta’s All-Star laden infield.
Now he could call Fenway Park home for years to come.
Acquired Saturday in exchange for accomplished but oft-injured veteran Chris Sale, Grissom is well positioned to become Boston’s second baseman of the future. The former Braves prospect is less than a week away from his 23rd birthday and remains under team control for another six years, and Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said they have high hopes for the talented young infielder.
“We saw someone that we felt was a dynamic athlete that can play all over the field and offers a ton of versatility, but who is most likely to settle in at second base as someone with a really strong right-handed bat who has been an elite performer at the minor leagues,” Breslow said. “I’ve talked long about the exciting emerging core of players around whom we want to build, and that group is growing and we’d certainly count Vaughn in that group.”
In 64 big league games Grissom has put up solid numbers despite erratic playing time, batting .287 with five home runs, 27 RBI and a .745 OPS. His numbers in the minors, however, have been elite, including a career .320 average and .884 OPS with 59 stolen bases since being drafted in the 11th round of the 2019 MLB Draft out of high school.
This past season he batted .330 with a .921 OPS in 102 games at Triple-A, which according to Baseball America was 35% better than league average, and BA also described Grissom as a skilled hitter with an advanced approach and the ability to hit the ball hard.
“There’s a really athletic body there who has had the versatility to play at second base, at shortstop, I know there were some plans to get him exposure in the outfield,” Breslow said. “For us he makes the most sense penciling him in at second base every day, and at 22 years old we think there is power to come, really strong bat to ball skills and someone who I think his best years are ahead of him.”
During his remarks Breslow also said he hasn’t met a team that has too much middle infield talent, but if there ever were such a team, the Atlanta Braves would be it. The NL East powerhouse has All-Stars Ozzie Albies, Orlando Arcia and Austin Riley under team control for the next three years and beyond, and that roster stability essentially made Grissom expendable.
Atlanta’s loss could be Boston’s gain, and now Grissom will have the opportunity to flourish he never would have gotten with the Braves.
Coming into the offseason Breslow called acquiring more starting pitching the club’s top priority, but after reportedly signing Lucas Giolito on Friday night, the Red Sox subtracted from their group by flipping Sale for Grissom.
Does that portend a larger shift away from the starting pitcher market? Breslow said it doesn’t, and in this case they simply found the Sale-Grissom swap too good an opportunity to pass up.
“I would still put starting pitching at the top, didn’t want to be paralyzed by becoming singularly focused on starting pitching that we let an opportunity to improve the longer-term outlook of the team to pass us by,” Breslow said. “But with that said I think we can continue to scour the starting pitching market both in free agency and through trade.”
Based on Breslow’s public statements and the club’s recent history, the preferred route at this point is likely a trade for a young, controllable starter. Adding an up-and-coming arm with a proven MLB track record who could contribute for multiple years before hitting free agency would be a boon for the franchise, but while those players don’t cost much money, they can be prohibitively expensive in terms of the prospects it takes to land them.
“In order to acquire controllable young starting pitching we have to be willing to make difficult decisions and decisions that hurt,” Breslow said. “But the way you can mitigate those losses is not just to acquire depth, but real quality.”
Though Boston didn’t acquire a pitcher in the deal, Breslow said trading Sale for Grissom was the kind of painful move the team needs to be willing to make. Now with the second baseman in the fold it’s easier to imagine Breslow drawing from the organization’s impressive collection of middle infield talent in a future trade.
Will he pull it off? Breslow’s shown a willingness to wheel and deal so far, so who knows what could be next down the line.