St. Louis Cardinals Reportedly Close to Deal With Pitcher Sonny Gray

The St. Louis Cardinals and free agent pitcher Sonny Gray are expected to finalize a contract, New York Post baseball columnist Jon Heyman reported Monday.

According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, the deal is for three years, $75 million.

Gray declined his qualifying offer from the Minnesota Twins earlier this month, meaning the Cardinals will now send them a compensatory draft pick next summer.

Gray finished second in AL Cy Young voting in 2023. The 34-year-old right-hander went 8-8 with a 2.79 ERA, 1.147 WHIP, 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings and a 5.3 WAR before going 1-1 with a 4.00 ERA in the postseason.

It marked Gray's third All-Star campaign in his 11-year career to this point. He made one in his five-year stint with the Oakland Athletics and another in his three years with the Cincinnati Reds, but he failed to do so in the one-and-a-half seasons with the New York Yankees.

St. Louis was rumored to be in the running for top free agent pitchers Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but this likely takes the team out of both races. The Cardinals now have a full starting rotation consisting only only pitchers over the age of 32 – Gray, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz, Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, the latter two of whom they signed last week.

The trade market is still an option for the Cardinals, however, given Lynn and Matz's respective inconsistencies and injury histories.

The Twins, meanwhile, lose another one of their top starting pitchers after fellow veteran Kenta Maeda signed with the Detroit Tigers on Sunday night.

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