Vaugh Grissom was in the Boston Red Sox organization in 2024 and 2025, but never really made an impact in the big leagues.
Grissom had a decent start to his career with the Atlanta Braves, but was traded to Boston for Chris Sale. In his first year with the Red Sox, he started on the injured list, and when he made his debut he was not great. In 31 games in 2024, he had a .465 OPS. The following spring, he struggled and spent all of 2025 in Triple-A.
For the WooSox in 2025, he had a .270/.342/.441 slash line, but never got a shot in the big leagues. Even when Alex Bregman got hurt, Marcelo Mayer was given the opportunity instead of Grissom. Then, when Mayer went down, Grissom still was not called up.
The Red Sox traded him to the Los Angeles Angels last offseason, and he has been allowed to shine there. He has a .707 OPS in 78 games this year. He is not a superstar by any means, but he has proven he can play in the big leagues. What changed?
“I think I would probably attribute that to the computer, you know what I mean?” Grissom told The Boston Herald's Mac Cerullo. “You have to watch the game and I think I’m damn near the same player, it’s just the opportunity, these people believe in me and in Boston there was no belief in the player. It is what it is, some people watch the game, some people go on the computer.”
The Red Sox under Craig Breslow have been often criticised for relying too much on analytics. Grissom seems to be one of those critics.
“Yeah, I don’t know, maybe I don’t look the best on paper but you watch enough and you see what the player is bringing,” Grissom said.
He is far from a perfect player, and his defense has been bad all season. However, he is a far better player now than he was in Boston. His exit velocities, sprint speed, hard-hit rate, barrel percentage and strikeout rate don't jump off the page, but he is getting decent results.