ORLANDO, Fla. -- Two years ago, just months into his tenure as chief baseball officer of the Red Sox, Craig Breslow decided to move on from oft-injured ace Chris Sale in a trade that landed a promising infielder named Vaughn Grissom from the Braves.
Grissom -- through injuries, performance and lack of opportunity -- never panned out in Boston, and his time with the club ended on Tuesday as he was dealt to the Angels for outfield prospect Isaiah Jackson.
“Sometimes, that's the way things work out,” said Breslow. “Vaughn is a great kid and a great player and still 24 years old, so I think that there's a bright future ahead of him. But just thinking about the way that our roster is coming together, the path to having an impact here is probably not super clear.”
The 21-year-old Jackson, an eighth-round pick in the 2025 Draft out of Arizona State, was rated the No. 25 prospect in the Angels’ system at the time of the trade.
“We're able to make this trade and bring in Isaiah Jackson, an outfielder that we like, young, just drafted last year. Hits the ball hard, can play really good defense, and we're excited to get him into our development system,” Breslow said.
The trade opened up a spot on Boston’s 40-man roster, which is now at 39.
TRADE DETAILS
Red Sox get: OF Isaiah Jackson (Angels' No. 25-ranked prospect)
Angels get: INF Vaughn Grissom
While the Sale/Grissom deal was a landslide win for Atlanta in terms of player for player, there were financial considerations from Boston’s end that factored into the deal that was consummated on Dec. 30, 2023.
At the time, the Red Sox were focusing more on building up the team’s young core and patching other areas of a flawed roster. The Braves took on $10.5 million of Sale’s $27.5 million contract for the 2024 season.
In Sale’s final three seasons in Boston, he was able to make just 31 starts, 20 of them coming in 2023.
While there wasn’t much scrutiny about the deal in Red Sox Nation when it was made, hindsight became a thing when Sale won the National League Cy Young Award for the Braves in 2024 and had another solid season in ‘25, though it was shortened to 20 starts due to fractured ribs in June.
While second base has essentially been a rotating spot for the Red Sox since 2018, Breslow’s initial hope was that Grissom could be the answer.
But it didn’t pan out from the start, as Grissom came to his first Spring Training with weakness in his hamstrings and opened the season on the injured list.
Grissom, a solid hitter throughout his time in the Minors and in 64 games with the Braves, was able to play just 31 games for Boston in 2024, slashing .190/.246/.219 with no homers and six RBIs.
Though Grissom came to Spring Training last season as a candidate to win the second-base job, he didn’t make the team and spent the entire season with Triple-A Worcester, hitting .270 with 13 homers and a .783 OPS in 96 games.
Jackson, a left-handed hitter, got 10 games under his belt with High-A Tri City after getting drafted, hitting .219 with one homer and four RBIs.
“It was tough to trade him,” said Angels general manager Perry Minasian. “We liked him in the Draft, but I give credit to our staff. To be able to take a pick in the [eighth] round and turn that into what we believe is a big league player with upside is a credit to them.”