WORCESTER \u2013\u00a0If anyone has walked a mile in the shoes of the four players joining the Red Sox organization this week from the Rafael Devers trade, it\u2019s Vaughn Grissom.<\/p>\n
Like them, he is, through no fault of his own, irrevocably linked to a franchise legend. The Red Sox acquired him right before New Year\u2019s 2024, when they sent Chris Sale to the Atlanta Braves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was pretty crazy,\u201d Grissom told the Herald of the Devers trade, which he and his WooSox teammates found out after boarding the bus to return to Worcester from a series with the Phillies\u2019 Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley. \u201cI saw it on my feed and I thought, that\u2019s probably nothing, probably fake. And then I saw it again, so I poked up my head, kind of like a gopher, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Hey guys!\u2019 Everyone was like, \u2018No way.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very surprising. I mean, he\u2019s the heartbeat \u2013 he was the heartbeat of the city and of this team. He hit the homers. So it was shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grissom hasn\u2019t been up with the big-league club this season, but he\u2019s in touch with some of his teammates like Triston Casas, with whom he formed an immediate bond last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I\u2019m not there, but I\u2019ve heard that the distractions were there, and that there was a vocalized difference, I guess would be the word,\u201d Grissom said of the atmosphere amidst the months-long saga surrounding Devers\u2019 position. \u201cThey went the route that they went.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sale was the second-to-last remaining 2018 champion, and Devers was the last vestige of glory. Now that everyone from that historic roster is gone, too, Grissom isn\u2019t sure who will fill his shoes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you think of the Red Sox, I think you think of Rafael Devers,\u201d Grissom said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to carry that charge now. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s some candidates, but you know, you have to perform in this city.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to do what the city loves, and that\u2019s to hit baseballs far and win. So I definitely think that there\u2019s gonna be a change, like an energy shift or whatever. But someone\u2019s going to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the trade, Sale proceeded to finally complete the comeback season he hadn\u2019t been able to achieve in Boston. With the \u201824 Braves he was an All-Star for the first time since \u201818 and became a Cy Young winner at last. He\u2019s having a stellar spring this year, too.<\/p>\n
Grissom, meanwhile, has spent most of his Red Sox tenure in Triple-A Worcester. He appeared in 31 games for the big-league team last season, but only hit .190 with a .465 OPS, 20 hits, including three doubles and 24 strikeouts. With the WooSox this season, he entered Thursday batting .262 with a .725 OPS, 61 hits, 14 doubles, five home runs, 24 walks and 51 strikeouts in 61 games.<\/p>\n
This week, he became teammates with left-hander Kyle Harrison, a fellow former National Leaguer who\u2019s been on a somewhat parallel journey.<\/p>\n
Grissom debuted with the Braves in \u201822, and played between 23 and 41 games in each of the last three seasons. Harrison debuted with the Giants in \u201823 and has pitched in 39 career games, including 25 starts. Both found themselves blocked from their positions at times before their respective trades, and now have to fight for a spot on their new organization\u2019s big-league roster.<\/p>\n
When Grissom first reported to Red Sox spring training last winter, the organization expected him to be their new everyday second baseman. Injuries quickly derailed that plan. He was optioned to Triple-A to begin this season, and has watched several top prospects get the call over him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re super talented,\u201d he said of Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony, who made their MLB debuts in late May and early June.\u2019 \u201cI became pretty close with those guys and it was actually really fun to watch them grow and show their talents. They\u2019re two incredible players. They\u2019re going to be playing up there for what I think will be a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for himself?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling pretty good, just surviving,\u201d Grissom said. \u201cI feel like when my time comes, I\u2019ll be ready. \u2026 It can be frustrating sometimes, but like I said, there\u2019s nothing I can really do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WORCESTER \u2013\u00a0If anyone has walked a mile in the shoes of the four players joining the Red Sox…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,919,2168,1199,4,24090,863,89,2543,1229,14300],"class_list":{"0":"post-118155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-chris-sale","13":"tag-kyle-harrison","14":"tag-milb","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-mlb-trades","17":"tag-rafael-devers","18":"tag-red-sox","19":"tag-redsox","20":"tag-vaughn-grissom","21":"tag-worcester"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114716230732911635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}