Part of the reason I'm a little more down on the Sale trade than a lot of people (the money makes it better than I initially thought) is that I don't know that there actually is a lot of upside with him. It feels like there should be, because it's CHRIS SALE, Badass Cy Young Contender, but that's a long way in the rearview mirror. He's 35 years old with an extensive injury history. I know there are some things to like in his peripherals and Statcast data, but even with that, I think you're still looking at a guy who tops out at a solid third starter, and with significant downside potential.
You obviously would still rather him start a playoff game than Bryce Elder, but you can say that about a lot of guys. Boiling it down and removing the names from the equation, I think we traded Grissom for an old, injury-prone pitcher whose ceiling is a third starter with good strikeout numbers (a very good thing to have, certainly!) and whose downside is zero innings pitched (or something close enough to zero as to make no difference). I don't think that's a terrible deal, but I'm also pretty wary.