Inside The Cardinals

Sonny Gray Reveals What Led To Cardinals Winning Ways

Sonny Gray has been a huge piece of the puzzle for the Cardinals this season.
Zach Pressnell|
May 19, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Sonny Gray (54) pitches against the Detroit Tigers during the first inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
May 19, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Sonny Gray (54) pitches against the Detroit Tigers during the first inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

In this story:

St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals seemingly entered the season with the expectations surrounding them that they would be a struggling, rebuilding team. While they've used the young talent like a rebuilding team would, they haven't struggled.

In fact, the Cardinals are right in the middle of a National League Central division race about a third of the way through the season and nobody outside of St. Louis saw this coming.

Veteran righty Sonny Gray recently revealed the change in the team and clubhouse that helped lead to the Cardinals' winning ways and it seems a lot simpler than many might have expected.

“I think [the difference is] letting everybody be themselves. Not putting all this unreasonable amounts of pressure and [making] everybody be a certain way and this and that, just letting guys go play,” Gray said. “Trying to create an environment where they can thrive and feel comfortable on a daily basis and just letting everyone go play with no handcuffs or anything.”

Sometimes, a team can find themselves when they're able to play freely and that's exactly what Gray echoed.

The Cardinals don't have any pressure on themselves because the expectations were set so low coming into the season. There's not much more dangerous in baseball than a team with nothing to lose.

Going forward, the Cardinals could become buyers at the trade deadline which may result in a few key moves. More than likely, St. Louis will look for controllable talent on the trade market rather than expiring players. This would allow the Cardinals to hold onto their trade targets for multiple years of this rebuild rather than losing them to free agency.

More MLB: Cardinals Writer Shares High Praise For Overlooked Prospect

Published
Zach Pressnell
ZACH PRESSNELL

Zach Pressnell has experience covering all major US sports at both the professional and collegiate levels. He’s produced content for FanSided, Blog Red Machine, The Game Haus, Bethany College Athletics and the Bethany College online newspaper, He graduated from Bethany College (WV) with a degree in Communications and Media Arts, specializing in Sports Journalism. Pressnell was also a four-year member of the baseball team where he earned himself All-PAC recognition as a pitcher (and a cool Tommy John surgery scar). Now, Pressnell specializes in NFL and MLB coverage for Sports Illustrated’s “On SI” network among others. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "St. Louis Cardinals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org

Home/St. Louis Cardinals News