Chris Sale out of Yankees' hair and making Red Sox look foolish is perfect outcome

Life is good for the New York Yankees right now. And it gets even better when fans can have some fun at the Red Sox's expense. Though we can't point and laugh at Boston's early-season performance because they're above .500, we can look around the league and find a sore subject for our rivals.

Down in Atlanta, Chris Sale is absolutely dominating for the Braves. The Sox traded him to the NL East powerhouse in the offseason, paid down a portion of his salary, and acquired former top prospect Vaughn Grissom in return.

So far, Sale is 6-1 with a 2.54 ERA, 2.45 FIP and 0.89 WHIP with 61 strikeouts across eight starts (49 2/3 innings), which includes a 10-strikeout performance in six shutout frames against the Sox last week.

Sale's return to (seemingly) full strength has him on pace to throw more innings and make more starts than he did with the Sox from 2020-2023. Think about that. He's going to eclipse four years of production before the 2024 campaign ends, if all goes as planned.

And to that we say ... it's about damn time a trade burned the Red Sox, even if it's only been for seven weeks.

Chris Sale out of Yankees' hair and making Red Sox look foolish is perfect outcome

In Boston, after missing all of spring training and not returning to the big-league lineup until the beginning of May, Grissom is hitting .135 with a .297 OPS in his first nine games. It won't stay that way because Grissom is far more talented than that, but it's just worth noting the contrast.

But best of all is Sale being out of the AL East as he rediscovers his form. This man has terrorized the Yankees throughout his career, so his exit from the AL altogether was a best-case scenario. Across 22 games (19 starts), Sale owned a 3.12 ERA and 1.03 WHIP with 157 strikeouts in 121 1/3 innings vs New York.

Trading Sale wasn't a bad decision by the Sox, but they made the move to avoid more negative headlines about his inability to stay healthy while putting a focus on improving their middle infield -- an area of the roster they created a mess of all on their own by signing Trevor Story and kicking Xander Bogaerts out of town.

Not only did the Red Sox downgrade, but they failed to properly address their roster, and are only remaining afloat because of an unexpected, unsustainable performance from their starting rotation. Credit where credit's due, but we'd be willing to bet this won't last past June.

As for the rest of the division? Let the teardowns begin. Send more of our hated rival players packing. We could use a new infusion of agitators and would love to rid ourselves of the tired acts.