Pitcher Sonny Gray, a free agent, has agreed to a three-year contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, the team announced on Monday.
The 34-year-old Gray joins a revamped Cardinals rotation that also includes Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn, two recent free-agent additions.
Gray just finished a fantastic 2023 season playing for the Minnesota Twins. After Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole, he came in second in the AL Cy Young Award voting, and he was selected for his third All-Star Game appearance.
After making 32 starts, the seasoned right-hander finished 8-8 with a 2.79 ERA and 184 innings pitched, striking out 183 batters.
Gray is 98-85 with a 3.47 ERA in 11 seasons with the A’s, Yankees, Reds, and Twins.
The Cardinals needed three starting pitchers to bolster a struggling rotation that had the fifth-worst ERA in baseball going into the winter. Along with Lynn and Gibson, Gray joins a new-look rotation that also includes Steven Matz and holdovers Miles Mikolas. Zack Thompson, Drew Rom, and Matthew Liberatore, three young left-handers who all started games last season with differing degrees of success, are also available to the Cardinals.
After Adam Wainwright’s retirement and the trades of Jack Flaherty and Jordan Montgomery during the season, St. Louis finished 26th in the ERA of starting pitchers and wasn’t afraid to add to its rotation.
St. Louis had its worst complete season (71–91) since 1990 as a result of their subpar pitching.