Red Sox add Sonny Gray to rotation in trade, while Cardinals pick up pair of young pitchers

The Boston Red Sox bolstered their pitching rotation connected Tuesday. When the 2026 MLB play opens, Sonny Gray volition beryllium wearing a Red Sox azygous alternatively of a St. Louis Cardinals one. 

The Cardinals agreed to commercialized the 36-year-old right-hander successful speech for pitcher Richard Fitts and 22-year-old left-handed imaginable Brandon Clarke. St. Louis volition besides instrumentality connected $20 cardinal of Gray’s wage adjacent season, according to aggregate reports.

The Red Sox struggled with pitching extent down ace Garrett Crochet past season. Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow said Gray helps capable a request the squad made wide it wanted to code this offseason.

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Sonny Gray (54) of the St. Louis Cardinals pitches during the archetypal inning against the Cleveland Guardians astatine Progressive Field connected June 27, 2025 successful Cleveland, Ohio.  (Nick Cammett/Getty Images)

"We’ve been beauteous transparent astir our tendency to adhd to the rotation, and our tendency to adhd a bat," Breslow said successful a league telephone with reporters. "I don’t deliberation anybody wants to consciousness similar they’re successful a presumption of having to cheque disconnected aggregate items connected the buying database and consciousness similar you’re either moving retired of clip oregon moving retired of options. ... But surely we consciousness bully astir wherever we beryllium today."

Gray joined the Cardinals successful 2024. He went 14-8 and posted a 4.28 ERA past season.

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"When you deliberation astir what Sonny has been successful this league, it’s a feline who’s pitched astatine the beforehand of rotations," Breslow added. "Those things that we deliberation pitchers transportation from twelvemonth to twelvemonth are things similar strikeout rates and locomotion rates and quality to conscionable enactment disconnected barrels. He excels there."

In a 13-year vocation with 5 teams, Gray is 125-102 with a 3.58 ERA.

St. Louis Cardinals' Sonny Gray pitches successful the archetypal inning of a shot crippled against the Cleveland Guardians successful Cleveland, Friday, June 27, 2025.  (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Asked if Gray was the No. 2 starter the Red Sox were seeking, Breslow said, "I don’t cognize however overmuch consciousness it makes successful November to enactment a fig connected a guy."

Fitts went 2-4 with a 5.00 ERA arsenic a rookie successful Boston past season. Meanwhile, Clarke has pitched lone successful Class A and is rated the No. 5 imaginable successful the Red Sox strategy by MLB.com.

Sonny Gray (54) of the St. Louis Cardinals pitches against the San Francisco Giants astatine Busch Stadium connected Sept. 7, 2025 successful St Louis, Missouri. (Jeff Le/Getty Images)

Gray, who waived his no-trade clause, had been guaranteed $40 cardinal for the adjacent 2 seasons. His declaration was changed to warrant him a $31 cardinal wage for adjacent twelvemonth and a $30 cardinal communal enactment for 2027 with a $10 cardinal buyout.

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The Red Sox finished the 2025 play successful 3rd spot successful the American League East. The squad finished the twelvemonth with an 89-73 grounds and clinched their archetypal postseason quality since 2021. The Cardinals failed to suffice for the playoffs this past season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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