Red Sox add veteran Sonny Gray in trade with Cardinals

BOSTON -- Vocal about the need to add an established starting pitcher behind ace Garrett Crochet in the rotation, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow achieved that goal on Tuesday by adding veteran righty and three-time All-Star Sonny Gray in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals.

In exchange, Boston sent right-hander Richard Fitts and lefty prospect Brandon Clarke -- the team’s No. 5 prospect per MLB Pipeline at the time of the trade -- to the Cardinals.

TRADE DETAILS
Red Sox receive: RHP Sonny Gray, cash considerations
Cardinals receive: LHP Brandon Clarke, RHP Richard Fitts, PTBNL or cash

• Why the Sonny Gray trade makes sense for Red Sox, Cardinals

Gray had to waive his no-trade clause for this deal to cross the finish line.

“The no-trade [clause] is a great barometer for how interested a player is in coming to a specific destination,” said Breslow. “So kind of by the nature of Sonny's willingness to waive it to come here, I think that says a lot about his interest.

Breslow made the deal with Chaim Bloom, who is in his first year as president of baseball operations with the Cardinals. Bloom preceded Breslow as the leader of Boston’s baseball operations staff from 2019-23.

Per a source, St. Louis is sending the Red Sox $20 million to cover part of Gray’s salary for 2026 and the buyout of his $30 million club option for ‘27.

Upon completion of the trade, and presumably for CBT reasons, Boston and Gray negotiated Gray’s $35 million salary for ‘26 to $31 million while increasing the buyout of his option from $5 million to $10 million. Gray also has the ability to opt out of the option if the Red Sox exercise it.

“When you think about what Sonny has been in this league, he’s a guy who has pitched in the front of rotations,” said Breskow. “And those things that pitchers carry from year to year are strikeout rates and walk rates and the ability to stay off barrels, and he excels there. So we’re really excited about a guy who is coming off back-to-back 200-strikeout seasons [while] shouldering significant workloads.”

Coming off their first postseason appearance since 2021, the Red Sox, who were knocked out by the Yankees in an AL Wild Card Series, are looking for some more forward progress in ‘26.

Gray could help them achieve that by bolstering the upper end of the club’s rotation

“He was very clear about his desire to win, and his excitement about this opportunity,” said Breslow. “So, he's very excited to come to Boston and we're excited to have him.”

The 36-year-old is coming off a solid season for the Cardinals in which he logged 32 starts and 180 2/3 innings, to go with a 14-8 record, a 4.28 ERA and 201 strikeouts. He led the National League with a 5.29 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

In his mid 30s, Gray has thrived. In 2023, while pitching for the Twins, Gray finished second behind Yankees ace Gerrit Cole in the race for the American League’s Cy Young Award.

“Sonny, he's got a pretty significant track record of not only performance and consistency, but of shouldering a pretty significant workload,” said Breslow. “I think two out of the last three years he's thrown 180-plus innings with what I would call impeccable command. This guy's sitting on a five percent walk rate for each of the last two years. And so, there's not just the 200 strikeouts and swing and miss, but there's also limiting free passes as well.”

While rumors had persisted that the Sox could have to deal from their logjam of talented outfielders to get a starting pitcher, this transaction allowed Boston to hold on to players like Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu.

It remains to be seen whether the Sox still move an outfielder at some point, though Breslow and manager Alex Cora have both said the DH spot could be useful in moving players around and getting everyone enough at-bats.

At the GM Meetings, Breslow said he was mainly focused on getting an upper-echelon starter who could pitch in a postseason series and didn’t sound inclined to add a pitcher who would be in the 3-10 range on the team’s depth chart.

However, Breslow didn’t rule out adding more pitching in Tuesday’s Zoom call.

“I don’t want to paint ourselves into a corner here. We felt like there was an opportunity to upgrade our rotation in 2026 and we did that,” said Breslow. “It’s early in the offseason. There are still opportunities that I anticipate materializing. Exactly what they look like, I’m not sure. But we’re not going to close off any chance to make the team better.”

It’s likely the club’s next significant acquisition will be adding a power bat.

Pete Alonso and Kyle Schwarber represent the most potent bats in free agency. There could also be interest in re-signing Alex Bregman, who opted out of the final two years of his contract with the Red Sox earlier this offseason.

“When he talks about his craft, he really understands what he's doing,” said Bloom. “He's incredibly thoughtful about the art of pitching, both in terms of the arsenal and how to create different shapes, how to build an arsenal and create stuff that can get hitters out, and then also how to battle out there and how to pitch the cat and mouse game. He really understands that he is a guy who can make the baseball do a lot of different things, and is able to do that consistently and competes.”

While trading two young pitchers is never easy, Breslow felt it made sense in this case.

“We’re kind of in this window where we need to compete, and we need to compete for the division, we need to compete for a deep postseason run, and that's the cost of doing business,” said Breslow. “Fitzy was great for us while he was here. With Brandon, a guy that we drafted, he has really, really exciting stuff. And they're both easy guys to root for. And you know, you hope that when you have these trades like this, it works out for both sides.”