The Atlanta Braves have actually lastly headed out and resolved their wish for a postseason-caliber beginning pitcher, getting Chris Sale and money from the Boston Red Sox for Vaughn Grissom. Sale, 34, has actually been just one of the ideal bottles in baseball when healthy and balanced, ending up in the top 10 of Cy Youthful voting 7 various times in his job. He is among 2 active bottles, along with Clayton Kershaw, to contend the very least 2, 000 occupation strikeouts and a Fielding Independent Pitching FIP) under 3.00. Yet that health is the huge caveat - Sale has pitched under 150 innings incorporated given that 2019, as a 2020 Tommy John surgery, a rib injury, and a damaged finger have all sidelined him. 102.2 of those were last season, nevertheless, as he made 20 starts for the Red Sox, with a 6-5 document and 4.30 AGE. In Atlanta, Sale joins a turning that doesn't need him to bring it, with Spencer Strider, Max Fried https://www.shopbravesapparel.com/collections/greg-maddux-jersey, and Charlie Morton all in front of him in the rotation. Obtaining Sale to the postseason healthy and balanced will certainly be the biggest priority for Atlanta, who saw sixteen different pitchers make beginnings as they managed rotation injuries to Max Fried and Kyle Wright, among others. Adding Sale lengthens the rotationSale's enhancement for 2024 clearly strengthens the turning, pressing Bryce Elder to the # 5 area. Elder, that was a 2023 All-Star on the stamina of his 7-2 record and 2.97 AGE, battled to the tune of a 5.11 age in the back half of the season as he videotaped a profession high 174.2 innings.  As simple as if to claim that the "losers" of this bargain are several of the younger pitchers competing for the # 5 turning place, like top potential customers Hurston Waldrep and AJ Smith-Shawver, they're extremely most likely to obtain significant big league run in 2024 as Atlanta tries to keep their frontline starters healthy and balanced for the postseason. Including Sale makes the turning a lot more formidable versus the DodgersSale, a left-hander, joins Max Fried as lefty rotation options to contest against the Los Angeles Dodgers. LA really did not execute markedly even worse versus lefties than righties last period, with an OPS difference of less than 20 points, but much of their short-side platoon players like Chris Taylor, Miguel Rojas, and Manuel Margot are much less vibrant than their lineup regulars of Gavin Lux, Jason Heyward, and Miguel Vargas. It's noticeable that Atlanta's biggest takeaways from the absence of crime in the NLDS versus the Philadelphia Phillies was the requirement for both several left-handed swing-and-miss choices and premium speed, and Sale can offer both. Sale's 2023 saw him put up 11.0 strikeouts per 9 innings, simply 0.1 off of his job 11.1 K/9 mark. And his heater, while coming in at "only" 93.9 miles per hour, was still both a favorable pitch on both run worth +4) and swing and miss out on, accumulating whiffs 23.4% of the moment. You didn't have to move pitching prospectsAll of the recommended pitching trades this offseason - for Dylan Cease of the Chicago White Sox, Tyler Glasnow of the Tampa Bay Rays currently with the Los Angeles Dodgers), Corbin Burnes of the Milwaukee Brewers - all included trading from Atlanta's pitching deepness. Particularly, they all were anticipated to take at the very Marcell Ozuna Jersey least one, and sometimes both, of the duo of AJ Smith-Shawver and Hurston Waldrep.