Alex Anthopoulos, the president of baseball operations for the Atlanta Braves, spoke about his decision to acquire Chris Sale during the winter on Buster Olney’s Baseball Tonight podcast. While White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease was the center of attention, Braves supporters were clamoring for another starting pitcher to join our already formidable rotation.
Anthopoulos prefers to move in silence, as we all know. Chris Sale was not being mentioned in trade discussions. This was an unexpected exchange. When Sale is healthy, one of the finest pitchers in the game is acquired by AA. Here’s what AA had to say when Olney questioned him about why he made the trade decision during the podcast.
“Look, there’s a risk, no question about it, right? Had he recently completed 180+ innings and been among the top five in the Cy Young awards, he most likely wouldn’t be available or would be much more expensive. It’s one of those situations, in my opinion, where you feel like the arrow is pointing up toward him.
Even though he is older, we consider that many of his injuries were strange after he managed to escape Tommy John. Before Tommy John, he was a fairly trustworthy man.
He threw well and completed 100 innings even last year. He also experienced a little of terrible luck. His ERA was, as you may recall, a shade over four and perhaps closer to the threes. He never experienced a thorough ramp-up or offseason, despite the fact that we believe his ability to be extraordinary. He ranks in our rotation as one of our top three starters.
Regarding injuries, he is in excellent condition with regard to his arms. He had a hand comebacker, followed by a wrist problem and a rib, but his elbow and shoulder have held up fairly well. We have a lot of optimism.” – AA
As I previously stated, the Braves might have the strongest pitching rotation in the Major League Baseball assuming Sale can stay healthy. Fried, Sale, Morton, Strider, and an unidentified fifth starter. It is a rotation that I would be happy to challenge anyone to.