As the Cardinals embarked on a self-proclaimed youth movement that commenced last offseason, veterans like Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Nolan Arenado had control over their futures by virtue of their contracts’ no-trade provisions. Arenado ultimately wound up considering trade possibilities anyhow, but Gray and Contreras quickly made their intentions to remain in St. Louis clear to the club. That won’t be the case for Gray in the coming offseason, however. Asked following last night’s game whether he feels he has to consider greenlighting a trade this winter, the former All-Star was candid in acknowledging a change in tune (link via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch):
“I think I do, just to be frank and to be honest. I definitely think I do. Whether I do decide that I want to go somewhere – whether that actually happens – I don’t have complete control of that. Obviously, I have control of where I can’t go or don’t go. I’m going to be 36. It’s going to be my 14th season. Last year of my contract for this. I don’t know what the future holds for me.”
Gray, 36 in November, has enjoyed another solid season in 2025, pitching to a 4.28 ERA with a 26.7% strikeout rate, a 5% walk rate and a 43.9% ground-ball rate in 180 2/3 innings. Metrics like FIP (3.39) and SIERA (3.29) feel he’s been far better than that more rudimentary earned run average would indicate. Since signing with the Cards in the 2023-24 offseason, Gray has made 60 starts and turned in a 4.07 ERA (3.27 FIP, 3.16 SIERA) in 347 innings.
On the surface, that performance and Gray’s broader track record would seem to create plenty of trade value — but the right-hander’s contract complicates matters. Even beyond the full no-trade protection, the backloaded nature of the contract will make it difficult for new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom (who was announced as current president John Mozeliak’s successor last October) to extract real value in return for the former Cy Young runner-up.
Gray is entering the final season of a three-year, $75MM contract. However, he earned just $10MM of that sum in year one of the contract and $25MM in 2025. He’s owed a massive $35MM salary for the 2026 season and at least a $5MM buyout on a $30MM club option for the 2027 season. The 2022-26 CBA stipulates that for traded players, their luxury tax hit is recalculated to match the remainder of their contract. As such, Gray comes with a $40MM CBT number. To a team that isn’t paying the luxury tax, that’s perhaps not a dealbreaker. But for third-time payors in the top penalty tier (e.g. Dodgers, Mets, Phillies, Yankees), Gray would come with a 110% tax; he’d effectively cost them a staggering $84MM.
No team is going to that length for one year of Gray, Plus, the Cards can’t even pitch the ’27 club option as a potential benefit. Gray’s contract stipulates that if his 2027 option is exercised, he can simply void the option and elect free agency. If Gray pitches well enough next year to merit a $30MM salary in 2027, he’ll probably just opt out once that option is exercised. That’d spare the new team $5MM in guaranteed money (plus any associated taxes), but that’s not really a selling point for the Cardinals when negotiating.
While we’ve seen a select few pitchers secure an annual value exceeding the effective one year and $40MM remaining on Gray’s contract, MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows that it’s been reserved only for clear Cy Young-caliber arms coming off peak seasons. Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer both secured $43.333MM annual values when they were even older than Gray, but Verlander was coming off an AL Cy Young win in 2022 and Scherzer had just posted a 2.46 ERA and finished third in NL Cy Young balloting the year prior. Zack Wheeler’s three-year extension with the Phillies pays him $42MM annually but was signed when Wheeler was a year younger and had turned in a combined 3.06 ERA in his previous 629 1/3 innings.
Gray, of course, is a decorated pitcher himself — a former first-round pick and three-time All-Star who has twice finished in the top-three of American Cy Young voting. That includes a second-place Cy Young finish with Minnesota as recently as 2023. His work with the Cardinals has been a few steps below those other $40MM-per-year aces, however.
There’s little doubt that Gray would be an in-demand commodity, in a vacuum. He’s 13th among all major league pitchers in terms of innings pitched since the 2019 season and carries a strong 3.51 ERA in that time. He misses bats, boasts plus command and keeps the ball on the ground at a slightly above-average clip. If Gray were a free agent and were to declare that he would only sign a one-year deal, it’s feasible that he could command close to $30MM, or perhaps even a slight bit more. Teams — especially big-market, high-payroll clubs — are often willing to pay a premium in terms of AAV to limit the long-term risk on free-agent contracts.
Even if there are teams who value him in that range though, the Cardinals would need to eat around $10MM just to pay Gray down to market value. If they wanted to actually create the type of surplus value that would net them a notable return in terms of prospects, they’d probably need to eat closer to $20-25MM of the contract. That probably wouldn’t net them a premium prospect, but at that price point they could justify asking for a solid minor leaguer or two to add to the middle tiers of their farm system.
It’s not yet clear how comfortable Cards ownership will be with paying substantial money to net a prospect return. If simply clearing salary is the goal, the Cards could probably eat $8-10MM and find a taker with little to no return — similar to the Cubs’ trade of Cody Bellinger to the Yankees last winter. The strength of any potential return will be contingent upon how much of the contract the DeWitt family is willing to pay down. Those are conversations that Bloom and ownership will have in the weeks ahead.
What’s clear at this point is both Gray’s intention to consider the possibility of waiving that full no-trade clause and the type of offseason that looms on the horizon for the Cardinals.
“I know the deal,” Gray last night said after noting that he and Bloom have spoken at length about the upcoming offseason. “I know the direction. …I came here to win. I signed here two years ago with the expectation of winning and trying to win, and that hasn’t played out that way. I want to win. I want to win, and I expect to win.”
Based on everything Gray said last night, there’s a very real chance that yesterday’s outing — six innings, two runs, seven hits, two walks, seven strikeouts — represents the final appearance of his Cardinals tenure.
If, as seems likely, the Cardinals would have to pay most of his contract and get little in return to move him, I wonder if they are better off keeping him.. Between how often pitchers get hurt and how inconsistent young pitchers can be, maybe the value in having one reliable veteran starting pitcher in the rotation. eating innings is greater than the savings they would get by dumping him.
I think it depends entirely on how much salary they need to eat. If it is 8-10 million like the article suggests, I think that’s probably a no-brainer even with no return, especially if we aren’t expecting to compete. If the number is 15-20 million, even for a light return, it gets a little more complicated.
Think they should/will hold onto him.
As the article states, he’s durable, his numbers are better than his pedestrian ERA, the Cards won’t get much of a return in a trade since his contract is so backloaded, the option year is a trade obstacle, and the Cards have limited starting pitching depth.
The team seems much more motivated/able to move the Arenado contract and slide JJ Wetherholt to 3B. The Cards will have to eat a lot of that contract to make it happen, so they’d have to have a hell of an appetite to eat two big chunks of two big contracts this offseason.
Sonny is a gamer and will also be in a contract year, so I expect good things for him in a Cardinal uniform in ’26.
I think that’s a fair take on the situation. For me, there are just so many questions as far as which direction the Cardinals are going. Gray saying that him and Chaim have been speaking at length about the offseason could mean anything, but the fact he has offered the information he is willing to consider a new place to play is a significant development that makes me think Chaim has discussed a longer timeline to compete and an interest in clearing salary.
I think if they only need to pay 10m to clear the rest of the salary, they will.
I’d rather keep Weatherholt at his natural position of 2B and move Donovan to 3B.
If Arenado stays again, I’d look into moving Donovan to the corner outfield most of the time, depending on what they do with Nootbaar and Walker this offseason.
I agree it depends on how much they pay and what the return is. I’m suggesting that at some point, the value in keeping him might be greater than the net return., even if they don’t expect to compete.
Agreed. Just keep him. He’s a good pitcher except for his annual July slide. Our rotation is the reason we didn’t make the playoffs this year. Getting rid of one of the two good ones isn’t the answer.
If he really wants out, then I think they should try to move him, but I agree. They’re going to need a couple starters who can eat innings.
From what I have read in other places, it appears that it will take a combination of things for Gray to waive his NTC and for another team to want to trade for him. The main one would be the $30 million team option for 2027 being guaranteed instead of there being the possibility of a $5 million buy out. That would probably mean the Cardinals would have to pick up a large portion of his $35 million 2026 salary to get much in return for him.
Gray has a decent 4.28 ERA and good peripherals, especially his 3.39 FIP, SO%, and SO/BB ratio; s0 2/47.5 is a reasonable amount to pay for a guy with those stats that takes the ball every 5th game. That would require to pay down half of his 2026 salary.
Will the Cards ownership be willing to take a $17.5 million hit in order to get a couple of decent prospects?
Yeah, it’s not like they need to cut payroll anyway after getting Mikolas, Matz, and Fedde off the books and Arenado getting a pay cut (or even more off the books if he’s actually traded this time), and they wouldn’t be able to do that much better signing someone on the open market after eating $10M or so just to get rid of Gray. So I agree that they’d be better off just keeping him.
Well I think the idea is that if they can only spend $10m to free up an additional $30m, then that’s a pretty easy choice, isn’t it? One year of value from Gray at that point is not worth delaying the future. They probably won’t do much better than him, but they can secure options for the future. I get it though, what’s one more year at this point? lol.
The money has nothing to do with delaying the future. While they wouldn’t get any prospects for him by keeping Gray (except maybe through the qualifying offer), they wouldn’t be missing out on that much prospect value.
As Adams talks about in the article, it’s going to be a hard sell to get some contending team that likely already has a large payroll to take on $30 million for Gray, or more than double that for several teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Mets, and Phillies when you include the CBT fines, and give up anything in prospect capital.
I also think that Gray is going to want something in return for waiving his NTC and more than likely that will be his $30 million 2027 team option being guaranteed.
I think they could offload him for no return from a big spender. Just isn’t any surplus value on what he’s being paid.
Mayyybe at the deadline when that big spender is on the playoff verge and in injury trouble, but in the winter when looking at a clean slate that $35m is a lot to take. A whole lot.
I think if they pay the $5 million buyout another team would take one year of Gray at $30 million with no player of value in return. Hard to get a solid number 2-3 starter on a one year deal.
Then there’d be no point in trading him in the first place, since they don’t actually need any salary relief beyond what they already have.
Nor am I saying that they should trade Sonny, just saying they probably could eat less money than other players think. And extra money savings could be used for other needs, such as a pitcher on a longer deal with a similar AAV.
Now, Arenado they should trade him to open up a spot for Donovan or Saggese when Wetherholt arrives.
Gray could negotiate an extension with the acquiring team, so they could lower the AAV on his salary, which would lessen the luxury tax burden and make it more likely that they’d give up a better return of players (one of which could already be making a decent salary – which would also help in taking on Gray’s money).
Year too late I’m afraid. Maybe teams don’t want him as much anymore? At least not at that price. At this point the Cards will have to eat more money and the return will probably be less. But like Barnum said about suckers, There’s one born every minute.
They won’t be competitive next year. Eat 25 mil, get a decent prospect. Eat 20 mil of arenado, get a lottery ticket. What money you save on those 2 spend on Donovan extension. Plus who knows with the prospects they could potentially get. If you can’t extend Donovan, trade him for a nice return too. The real key is trading Contreras. If the others go maybe he will wave his no trade too. Throw in some money on his deal and get another decent prospect. Plus with him gone they can play gorman or burleson at first and put actual outfielders in the outfield. Then the books will be clean for 2027. Then hope some of the non weatherholt prospects pan out.
Even if they don’t plan to compete next year, they have no need to clean the books any further. They already dumped a bunch of salary last offseason and have even more coming off the books this offseason that they’ll probably put back into next year’s payroll.
Contreras should be staying put at the very least, as will Donovan even if they don’t extend him.
He’s 36 yrs old, 14 years in the majors, signed a no trade deal, how much will it cost the Cardinals, they will have to pay or 60 to 70 % on what’s left of the contract. At 36 the return is not going to be that great. I could see them unless they get a sucker of a team to overpay for him this off season, I could see him maybe being dealt at the trade deadline of 2026 and if not, I could see him being just out right released from the Cardinals by August 31st so he could maybe hook on with a playoff contending team.
“Get me outta here!”
“here….eat this”
Guarenteed $40 million, even for one year, is a lot, and probably only a few teams can afford that. He’s been pretty reliable in terms of health, so I could see the Dodgers as a fit. Padres have Dylan Cease and Michael King hitting FA, so Gray could be an option for them. Red Sox are another fit so they can have someone to go with Crochet/Giolito/Bello. I could see the Tigers being super aggressive after this September meltdown, though there might be better fits than Gray.
You really think Mets fans would want him on their team after his disastrous time with the Yankees?
To be fair, they eventually tossed that out the window and let him throw as he wanted and he got even worse.
he’s a good pitcher. They are loaded with money. But oh! The difficulty of pitching in the holy NYC! Max Fried called BS on this sentiment earlier this year when Chris Rose tried to get him to say Atlanta was nothing compared to NY (blessed be it’s holy name).
Jazz Chisolm couldn’t play well in MIA.
Trade only happens after all the big free agent pitchers are off the table.
The old adage, there are no bad 1 year contracts goes out the window here. STL would have to eat some of the contract or take back a bad contract.
And this is all moot if Gray doesn’t approve a trade. He’s only agreeing if he likes the other team; that other team has to like him too.
Trade with the Braves
Sonny Gray
Brendan Donovan
Jordan Walker
25 million
For
Spencer Strider
Reynaldo Lopez
If I were the Braves I would jump on that trade. I believe you to be a Cards fan so this trade is puzzling. We know the the value of Donovan and Gray, Walker is a low paid wild card, plus 25 million for 32 yo Lopez who averages 2.1 war and Strider who can be a good pitcher but is owed 64 million over 3 years. I hope not.
Gray is only going to go where he wants and I think he wants to go to the Braves if dealt. He lives close. Walker is from Georgia.
For the Cardinals they need high upside pitching and that is what both Lopez and Strider are. If both guys bounce back the Cardinals could contend. And Wetherholt would replace Donovan. If Strider in particular could bounce back the Cardinals would have an ace locked up long term and they need that badly.
The Braves are not going to sell that low on Strider, whom they control for four more years. They don’t need Walker, a 4th outfielder. Donovan’s a decent hitter, but I think they’re going to pick up Albies’ option and hope he continues to hit in 2026 like he did in the second half of 2025. Not saying they won’t go for Gray, just that this deal wouldn’t happen.
The Braves could use the long term payroll flexibility trading Strider would provide. Walker is a lottery ticket not worth much. Donovan would replace Ozuna not Albies. Donovan value is his versatility he can play all over if someone gets hurt. The Braves have starting pitching long term and plenty of it. They just dont need Strider and also there is risk with Strider. If he doesnt bounce back hes not worth his contract.
Murphy will replace Ozuna on days he’s not catching. I’d be gobsmacked if the Braves traded Strider. He’s valuable to the Braves for the same reason he’s valuable to the Cardinals. Gray has negative trade value. The Cardinals are not getting “an ace locked up longterm” for him.
Strider sure as heck didnt pitch like an ace in 2025. You dont know if he will bounce back.
The Braves should most likely trade Murphy. But if they dont there is still room for both of them and Donovan. Donovan would replace Ozuna and offer more versatility in case of injury.
The Braves would get 25 million in my proposal. That gives Gray positive trade value.
I can understand you think Strider will bounce back. But he might not and there is a lot of risk in that.
He might not, but you don’t trade him before giving him a chance. His trade value (and Murphy’s too, for that matter) is at it’s lowest right now. You don’t sell low on a 2026 27 year old potential ace who will have a normal offseason rather than a rehab offseason. The 25 million that comes with Gray still leaves the Braves on the hook for $15M. They can keep Strider for $20M-$22M for each of the next four years.
I get that you want Strider. Everyone does. If the Braves put him on the market, they could get a lot more than Gray and Donovan.
Its not at its lowest. The lowest would be if Strider has another year like he just did in 2025. If he does its lower. Again you can believe he won’t but he certainly could.
Only a fool would pay no more than 15 mill out of the outrageous 35 mill owed. Just an example of how bad baseball salaries are
The Cardinals rank 19th in attendance this year. They should expect that to drop to levels never seen before if they get rid of Sonny, Nolan, and Willson. They create this Ballpark Village atmosphere, raise ticket prices,and don’t place a competitive team on the field is just perplexing.
Were the Cardinals desperate to sign Gray to negotiate those kind of terms of his contract? Those terms$ are just crazy
The deal was backloaded dude. It was a 3 year 75 million dollar contract.
it was likely backloaded at the team’s insistence because they can stretch that first year payroll to make a playoff run. Meanwhile the player doesn’t get use of the money for two more years, so the team most often benefits from backloading. Don’t blame Sonny, he was getting paid either way and it let the team build a better 2023 roster.
EDIT: This is more directed at the previous poster, not KoC.
Yeah they have to provide extra perks since it isn’t the ideal place to play anymore.
He got 3 years 75 million coming off a season where he finished 2nd in the Cy Young voting. It was a good contract but his performance has taken a step back and the contract is backloaded.
The deal isn’t crazy, based on the market value. Pitchers are expensive. $25m/year for three years for a durable, effective veteran at his age was at or slightly below market value.
Welcome to modern baseball.
Unless the Tigers trade Skubal, a solid starter on a one-year contract will be interesting for them. They could absorb the CBT hit and perhaps up to $ 25m in real cash. So Detroit might be an option, even more so without St. Louis having to take any bad contracts themselves.
Gruß,
BSHH
The Red Sox should do it
They will likely have substantial resources available for a move like this.
Especially to eat all the money
LMAO at Gray waiting until his contract is unmovable to say “Okay I might waive it” he never wanted to leave
I don’t necessarily agree that the Cards would have to eat a substantial portion of his salary. He’s still better than an average starter in the league, and there are enough pitching starved teams that will likely see him as a good option. I’m sure t he’ll need to eat some, but most or all? I don’t think it will take that much to move him for something decent.
Teams over the LTT won’t want him so that limits his suitors. If they’re going to break the bank, they’ll be going after someone with higher upside.
Exactly. The list of teams that are going for it, that have the financial resources and interest to add a $25-25m player and that aren’t already walking the tax threshold is vanishingly small.
I feel like the Cards would have to eat at least half of his contract if they want to get back anything in return. He’s solid but at his age, a falloff can happen quickly and his salary is just quite a lot.
Can see teams like the Padres, Mets, Dodgers, Giants, Red Sox, and maybe the Tigers being in on him. But again, they’d have to either eat a team’s bad contract or accept very little in return.
Sonny Gray seems to be “the secret Ace/Top of the Rotation Pitcher” that the league can’t quite figure out how to accurately valuate or feel about. He’s been passed around as this ‘future ace’ or this ‘secret weapon’ and then passed around/passed on again as his actual results underwhelm relative to the hype around him.
I remember that Jesus Luzardo sweepstakes from a couple years back and the way people analyzed and salivated over him reminds me of that- another pitcher with ultimately underwhelming, so-so overall numbers but whose hype is just through the roof so that people tricked themselves into thinking he’s this secret weapon when he’s… just an pretty pretty…pretty good pitcher who’s a very solid 3rd to 5th starter.
I think there are some players who’s numbers aren’t actually that amazing but analysts and fans somehow decide to play 4-D Chess Logic with that player’s valuation and pretend that they’re secretly The Game Changer, the Peak Verlander/Peak Cliff Lee, etc. hiding behind the mask of a semi-anonymous journeyman and nobody (except everybody) has figured it out.
But the truth is- these are pitchers who’ve been overhyped. They’re to baseball and pitching as Colin Farrell has been for the past 20 years or Pedro Pascal currently is to Box Office/Movie Stardom: This *perception* they’re an insanely popular actor, but the consistently mediocre to terrible box office numbers do not bear this out in any way.
That’s Sonny Gray to me- the high profile actor who’s movies don’t actually do good business- or in this case, a good but not great starting pitcher who’s not the shut down amazing ace that people tell themselves he is.
I think if he hit the market today, right now, I’d give Gray 1 year/$25M (man pitching is at an insane premium nowadays) and then go from there.
The fact that any team structured a deal to give him $40M for one year is insane. I understand backloading and I also think players deals should be stagnated up in value to match inflationary realities (so if you sign for 5 years/$100M, you’d get, say, $10M, $15M, $20M, $25M, $30M) but sometimes that approach proves a problem for everybody in the end when the final salary is so exponentially expensive by like a 25%+ mark up- as is the case with Gray’s current contract structure..
What we don’t know is whether the Cards requested that the contact be backloaded or Sonny. At the time of the Sonny signing, the Cards payroll was about $180m; now it’s about $90m…very different situation.
Yeah and I get that teams often go all in for 1-2 years and if that doesn’t work out, they blow up the club, trading away any and all expensive assets when possible – Miami before and after the 2012 season, for example. Detroit with Prince Fielder as a lesser example- I believe the Mets did this not too long ago with deGrom, Verlander and Scherzer.
Point being that baseball is very much an easy come easy go type of player budgeting structure, so I assume teams factor that kind of potential into any major signing- that they might be going all in this off season, but 12 months from now they might want to tear it all down and start fresh and start cheaper.
I don’t think that’s really what is going on here with Gray. I think it’s what I said- there’s some part of the league that sees Gray as this $30M-$40M a year pitcher and yet they also know, deep down, he’s more of a $15M-$25M a year pitcher and they’ve put themselves in an uncomfortable position. I think even without a luxury tax hit, nobody wants to take on Gray’s deal at this point- even though he’s not a bad pitcher by any means and hasn’t really dropped off precipitously.
It’s funny- his $10M-ish a year deal in Cincinnati was a slight under pay, but only slight. I bet if that deal had increased to a $16M-ish AAV he’d have stayed in Cincy and been considered a very fair value- not underpaid, not overpaid, but paid a reasonable, comfortable level for his value.
He’s gonna end the season with maybe a 1.5 WAR, which would be about $13.5M to $19.5M going by current contract value averages per WAR…. or about $16.5M… which is precisely what he is worth.
Waive goodbye to the postseason too
Sonny Gray has a no postseason clause this off-season as well
Idk if Stearns would go for it but maybe Cohen would. Take Gray and his salary off STL books and ask Cards for a top 15 prospect too.
Are you saying the Cards trade Gray and someone like Bernal to the Mets for ????? and the Mets take on 100% of Gray’s $40 million guaranteed for 2026 contract?
Sonny Gray has been excellent in Stl.
I don’t know why anyone thinks otherwise.
Oh. Yes, I do. They can’t look past ERA.
Gray has a 74 xFIP this year and a 70 xFIP last year.
Also, a lot of people showing that they don’t understand basic finance. Gray’s contract pays him LESS because it was structured how it is.
It pays him less but costs more. The Cards would have to pay it way down.
3/$75 spread out this way is less than 3 years of $25 million. That’s part of the reason it was done like this
Gray would be a good fit for Giants. Pitching in Oracle Park would benefit Gray
I believe Gray would waive his no trade and take a lower 1 yr deal to the right team, maybe the Dodgers could take a gamble on him as a replacement for Kershaw. Make him a 4 or even a 5th starter. At 36 he might even take a lower base salary and add incentives for a solid chance to make the playoff in 2026.
The Dodgers already have Yamamoto, Snell, Ohtani, Glasnow, and Sasaki under contract next season.
Gray is under contract and can’t opt to lower his ’26 salary.
Plus
Sheehan, Ryan and Stone.
Maybe Casparius and Wrobleski unless the team moves them to relief.
Also Gonsolin
Gray can sign an extension and lower the AAV for the CBT
Sonny Gray and 10 million for Adolis Garcia!!!
I am ok with that deal although the Cardinals really do need pitching.
To me, extensive discussions indicate he is all but gone and officially might go quickly. What else are they talking about if it’s not “how about this team we are talking too ?”
Giants already said they are interested. Obviously aware. Seems rather advanced to me.
We’ve read this year that part of Gray’s (theoretical) attraction to waiving his NTC for a trade to the Giants, was his close friendship with Bob Melvin – who’s gone now.
Don’t know if that would affect his thinking about coming back to The Bay or not.
Welcome to the Braves
Sonny Gray to the A’s for cash
Gray will never survive with a great team or big market. He was horrible on the Yankees. St Louis is a great team for him if management gets their act together. The Cards fans deserve better.
I interpreted his comments as “if a contender adds $20M in new money for 2028, I will consider it.”
That said, if there is a lockout after 2026, he or his agent realizes that trying to get a new contract for 2027-2028 at that point may be tricky.
We had a lockout during the last CBA negotiations. That didnt prevent players from signing once it was over.
I’m not sure of the As payroll situation, but if they are back in the “needing to add payroll to avoid a union complaint” territory, I could see them taking Gray. Maybe Cards cover $10mil and the As offer like two prospects at the back of the top 30 like Shotaro Morii and Bobby Boser.
According to A’s beat reporters, they will be increasing payroll likely to avoid a union grievance and to continue to receive revenue sharing money.
A’s need starting pitching to go deeper in contention next season.
Everyone wants outa St Louis.
Sonny Gray is a nice pitcher for sure.
But calling him decorated is absolutely silly.
He has a couple all star appearances and that’s it. THATS ALL! He has been pretty poor in the post season as well.
Where in the world do these journalists come from. It’s like sports journalism gets worse and worse is the years go by, and it wasn’t even particularly good to begin with.