Context matters.

Sep 8, 2024; Cumberland, Georgia, USA; tlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale (51) pitches the ball against Toronto Blue Jays during second inning at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images / Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images

Against the wishes of just about every Boston Red Sox fan, the team was mostly quiet this offseason, refusing to spend like the big-market team that they are. In fact, the biggest move that the team did make saw them trade away one of their highest-paid players, Chris Sale, who was shipped off to the Atlanta Braves.

In hindsight, it looks like the worst trade in Red Sox history and vice versa for Atlanta. It has been as one-sided as any deal has been in recent memory. Sale looks like he has the NL Cy Young award wrapped up, the only question is if he’s going to win the pitching Triple Crown. Meanwhile, the player Boston got, Vaughn Grissom, has done just about nothing in a Red Sox uniform.

The young infielder has missed substantial time with injury, has struggled in the 23 MLB games he has appeared in, and despite being healthy down the stretch, has been in Triple-A since late July.

Again, in hindsight, this is one of the worst deals in recent memory. Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20. The Red Sox deserve somewhat of a pass for how this trade has aged.

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Red Sox deserve the slightest pass for how Chris Sale trade has aged

At the peak of his powers with the Red Sox, Chris Sale was among the American League’s elite starting pitchers. He didn’t win a Cy Young award, but finished in the top four of the balloting in each of his first two seasons with Boston, even finishing as the runner-up in 2017. The following year saw him close out a World Series win.

Sale’s outstanding first two seasons in Beantown on top of what he had accomplished with the Chicago White Sox is why he was able to sign a five-year extension worth $145 million ahead of the 2019 season. That deal would’ve kept him with the team through 2024.

Unfortunately, from the moment he signed the deal, that’s when everything unraveled. Sale made 25 starts for the Red Sox in 2019, posting an extremely underwhelming 4.40 ERA in 147.1 innings of work. He was placed on the IL with an elbow injury in mid-August of that year, and eventually had to undergo Tommy John Surgery ahead of the 2020 campaign. As a result, Sale would miss all of 2020 and most of 2021, making just nine starts that year.

To make matters worse, the southpaw suffered a pair of non-baseball injuries in 2022 and was limited to just two starts that whole season. The cherry on top was Sale’s 2023 campaign which did see him make 20 starts, but he had a 4.30 ERA in 102.2 innings of work. Advanced metrics suggested he was getting a bit unlucky, but he was nowhere near what he once was.

At the end of the day, context matters. Since signing the extension ahead of the 2019 season, Sale made a total of 56 starts across four seasons, averaging 14 starts per year while making close to $30 million annually. In those starts, he had a 4.16 ERA. Is that good?

Let’s get all of the facts straight. He was making a ton of money, was as unreliable as any starting pitcher in the game when it came to staying on the field, was going to be 35 years old at the start of the 2024 campaign, and when he was healthy enough to take the ball, he was not close to what he once was. What value did Sale realistically have at the time?

The Red Sox got an intriguing infielder in Grissom, who never got a fair shot in Atlanta. He had a lot of talent, especially offensively, but with the Braves having as strong of an infield as they did, he was never going to play. The Red Sox essentially got six years of this promising infielder for one year of a pitcher who, based on the four years prior, was unlikely to last the entire season, and even if he somehow did, wasn’t going to pitch like the star he once was. It hasn’t worked out, but it’s also just the first season of Grissom in Boston.

At the time of the deal, the view from most was that it was, at worst, a win-win if not a Red Sox win. Sure, Sale always had the potential to bounce back, but how realistic was that? The Red Sox were able to get six years of Grissom for him, it felt close to a no-brainer at the time.

Now, in hindsight, the deal looks awful. Sale has been as unhittable as ever, and has kept the Braves in the postseason race despite all of their injuries. The Braves and Sale deserve a ton of credit for that. The Red Sox deserve blame for how this has all unfolded, but they also deserve some grace.

Nobody, not even the most optimistic Braves fan, could’ve predicted this kind of outcome. The fact that Alex Anthopoulos was wise enough to extend Sale before he threw a pitch for Atlanta makes it an even bigger win for the Braves.

The Braves deserve a whole lot more credit than the Red Sox deserve blame.