Alex Anthopoulos Talks About Acquiring Chris Sale This Offseason
Atlanta Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos went on Buster Olney's Baseball Tonight podcast to discuss his reasoning behind trading for Chris Sale in the offseason. While Braves fans were clamoring for another starting pitcher to add to our strong rotation, all eyes seemed to be on Dylan Cease from the White Sox.
As we all know, Anthopoulos loves to make moves in silence. No one was bringing up Chris Sale's name in trade conversations. This trade came out of left field. AA was able to land one of the best pitchers in the game when Sale is healthy. During the podcast, Olney asked AA why he decided to pull the trigger on the trade, and here is what he had to say.
"Look, there's no doubt, there's a risk, right? If he had just come off of 180+ innings and a top-five finish in the Cy Young, he's probably not available or a lot more expensive. I think it's one of those things where you feel like the arrow is pointing up with him.
I know he's older but we just feel like once he got away from the Tommy John, a lot of the injuries were just freak (injuries). Prior to the Tommy John, he was a pretty reliable guy.
Even last year, he threw 100 innings and he threw well. He had some bad luck too. You know, his ERA was a little over four and probably a little more suited for the threes. Look, he never had a proper offseason, he never had a proper ramp-up, and we think the ability is phenomenal. We think he's a top-three starter in our rotation.
From an injury standpoint, arm-wise, he's in a really good place. He had a comebacker in terms of his hand and then he had a wrist issue then a rib but in terms of elbow and shoulder, it's been pretty good. We're really optimistic." - AA
As I said before, if Sale can remain healthy, the Braves may have the best pitching rotation in the MLB. Strider, Fried, Sale, Morton, and a fifth starter that hasn't been named yet. That is a rotation that I would be glad to put up against anyone.
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