Boston’s rotation already featured an ace who had finished second this year in American League Cy Young Award voting. Now, the Red Sox have added another former AL Cy Young runner-up to pair with Garrett Crochet.
The Red Sox bolstered their rotation two weeks ahead of the winter meetings by acquiring veteran right-hander Sonny Gray from the Cardinals on Tuesday. In return, a rebuilding St. Louis club under new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom will receive one of Boston’s top pitching prospects in 2024 fifth-round pick Brandon Clarke and an MLB-ready rotation depth piece in Richard Fitts.
Gray is a couple of years removed from a 2023 All-Star season in Minnesota in which he tallied a 2.79 ERA and finished second in AL Cy Young Award voting. His ERA has ascended since then in his two years in St. Louis — 3.84 in 2024, 4.28 in 2025 — but the durable 36-year-old is coming off back-to-back 200-strikeout seasons and an NL-best 5.29 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 2025.
Here’s what’s next after Gray’s departure for Boston:
What’s next for the Red Sox
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Boston employs one of MLB’s most talented arms in Crochet, but the Red Sox needed another pitcher they could reliably give the ball to in a playoff game. Gray, who has a 3.26 ERA in six career playoff starts, fits the bill. He should now slot in as the team’s No. 2 starter.
He won’t cost the Red Sox the full amount he was due — St. Louis is also sending $20 million to Boston to help offset Gray’s salary — so this opportunity makes a lot of sense for a Red Sox team that needed more stability in the rotation as it attempts to build on its first playoff appearance since 2021.
The Red Sox have some high-upside depth options to round out the rotation even beyond 26-year-old Brayan Bello, who had a 3.35 ERA in 2025. Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval are both expected back in 2026 after missing last year to injury, and 23-year-old prospects Connelly Early and Payton Tolle could compete with 24-year-old Kyle Harrison for a starting role. This should just be the start, though, as there is still work to do in bolstering the bullpen and adding another impact bat with third baseman Alex Bregman now a free agent.
What’s next for the Cardinals
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Could veteran slugger Nolan Arenado (finally) be next to go? This is Bloom’s first trade of note as he attempts to chart a new path forward for a Cardinals team that has been stuck in neutral, missing the playoffs each of the last three years and making it no further than the wild-card round over the past six years.
The Cardinals might still be good enough to field a competitive roster in 2026 — they’ve hovered close to .500 each of the last two years — but the immediate future seems to be centered on figuring out which young players (and especially which young arms) could be part of the next great St. Louis team.
Clarke, 22, is a longer-term play and will be worth keeping an eye on as the Cardinals try to improve their player development under new leadership. The left-hander brings high-90s velocity and a wipeout slider that give him a high ceiling, but the development of his arsenal and control could determine whether he’ll be an MLB-caliber starter or a potential bullpen weapon down the line. He struck out 43 batters in 28.1 innings at High-A Greenville last year, but he also surrendered 25 free passes.
Fitts, who made 10 starts for Boston in 2025, gives St. Louis some necessary rotation depth after losing Gray. The Cardinals will see if 26-year-old Matthew Liberatore and 25-year-old Michael McGreevy, both starters in last year’s rotation, can take a step forward. They have other young depth pieces who could get an opportunity, but they will likely need to add at least one more experienced arm.
What’s next for Gray
(Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)
Gray waived his no-trade clause for the chance to play for a winner in Boston. He was going to make $35 million in 2026 in the final season of a backloaded three-year, $75 million deal in St. Louis, and his original contract had a team option for $30 million in 2027. Now, that deal is reportedly being reworked. He’ll make $31 million next year with a mutual buyout option of $10 million. (Mutual options rarely get exercised, so he’s likely to make $41 million in 2026.) A slightly better payday, and a better chance to get back to the postseason for the first time in three years, had to be enticing.
While Gray is not the same standout he was in Minnesota, he’s still plenty productive. He had a career-high whiff rate in 2024 and set career-best marks in K/BB, walk rate and chase rate in 2025. His sweeper remains a weapon — opponents hit .150 with 111 strikeouts against the pitch — which is all the more important as the velocity on his low-90s fastball wanes. His plus control and secondary offerings should allow him to remain an effective starter as he enters his late-30s, and his ability to eat up innings will take pressure off Crochet to shoulder the load.
What’s next in the starting pitching market?
With Gray going to the Red Sox and Grayson Rodriguez going to the Angels, we’ve already seen some early action in the starting pitching market. And yet, all the top free-agent starters remain available. Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez, Dylan Cease, Michael King, Zac Gallen and Japanese standout Tatsuya Imai are among the top options for the many playoff-caliber teams searching for impact arms.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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