Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli’s words rang with an undeniable tone of respect as he spoke about his former pitcher , the new front man for the Cardinals’ starting rotation.
Baldelli described with a measure of admiration the influence Gray’s presence had on his club the past two seasons and the mentality to the clubhouse.
Gray finished second in the American League Cy Young Award voting this year for his exploits on the mound with the Twins. Last month, the Cardinals successfully wooed the free-agent right-hander to ºüÀêÊÓƵ with a three-year contract that guarantees him $75 million with an option year that could make it a four-year, $100 million pact.
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The Cardinals were smitten by Gray’s production as well as the imprint he potentially could put on the pitching staff over the next three to four years as the club hopes to transition more inexperienced pitchers from its farm system into major league roles in coming seasons.
Veteran free-agent pitchers Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson bring similar qualities to the staff, though Lynn and Gibson each signed a one-year deals with an option year. Only Gray’s deal assures he’ll be with the club in 2025 and beyond, barring unforeseen circumstances.
Perhaps nobody in baseball understands the impact of integrating Gray into a clubhouse better than Baldelli. The Twins skipper since 2019 and a former major league player, Baldelli wholeheartedly endorsed Gray last week during the MLB winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee.
“I think some of those things are tangible; some of the things that Sonny brought to the table were very tangible,†Baldelli said in response to a question from the Post-Dispatch. “They’d watch him pitch and pick and choose and mimic some of the things that they would see. But I think some of them are not necessarily things that you can really grab a hold of, like his desire to hold on to the ball in his starts.
“Just how much — not physically with his fist — but how he kind of fights out there on the mound when things get more challenging in an outing, the way he approaches all of those different situations, and the pitches and the way he acts out there and things like that, I think those are the things that the players really liked watching and probably drew something out of, maybe even more so than the pitches that he was throwing during the game.â€
Delivering consistency
Gray, 34, went 8-8 with a 2.79 ERA, 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings, a 3.33-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and a 1.15 WHIP in 32 starts (184 innings) in 2023.
His 2.83 FIP (fielding independent pitching) and 0.4 home runs allowed per nine innings pitched both led the majors. He logged the second-lowest ERA among qualified AL pitchers, the third-lowest in the majors behind NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell (2.25) and AL Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole (2.63).
In his two-year run with the Twins, he went 16-13 in 56 starts with a 2.90 ERA, 8.9 strikeouts per nine innings, 2.7 walks per nine innings and a 1.14 WHIP.
For his career in the majors, Gray has gone 98-85 with a 3.47 ERA in 279 games (270 starts).
“As productive on the mound of any pitcher you’re going to be able to acquire, very successful,†Baldelli said of Gray. “The way he goes about it, different than most. He’s got a good kind of older-school approach and personality to a lot of the things that he does, which a lot of people in the game appreciate. Especially on the day he pitches. He’s a different cat when he’s out there on the day he pitches.
“I could tell you all the things that I think, but the one thing I can say is that his teammates when he has the ball in his hands, they want to jump on his back every time he goes out there and takes the mound. And he’s going to want to keep pitching. He’s going to want the ball.â€
Last season, Gray pitched six innings or more in 19 of his 32 starts. Down the stretch with the Twins battling for a playoff spot, which they eventually secured, he went six innings or more in nine of his final 11 starts.
For the season, Gray collected 17 quality starts. He allowed more than three earned runs in just three of his starts .
After the All-Star break, Gray seemed to get stronger. His strikeout-to-walk ratio improved in the second half (from 2.59 to 1 up to 5.13 to 1). Opponents’ batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage all also went down in the second half against Gray.
The Cardinals were sorely lacking that sort of consistent performance from their starting pitchers last season. led the club with 14 quality starts, but he also gave up four runs or more 12 times. Cardinals starters compiled an ERA of 5.08 last season, ranked 26th of the 30 MLB teams.
Breadth of experience
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol spoke to what the club hoped to gain with the additions of Gray, Lynn and Gibson. His comments didn’t begin with innings or on-field production.
“(President of baseball operations John Mozeliak) and his group, I think, have done a really good job if you look at the void we had last year and what we’ve added this year, not only from a skill set standpoint but also when you look at the personalities that are coming into that clubhouse, it’s equally as important, and you’ve added some established guys that have experienced the ups and downs of this game,†Marmol said during the winter meetings. “That’s important for our young guys to see.
“So you add Sonny, this a high, high competitor. When you’re in conversation with him, it’s fairly clear that he cares about being really good, but he also wants everybody around him to be elite. That’s a good leadership quality to have in that clubhouse.â€
Gray will walk into the clubhouse with parts of 11 major league seasons under his belt as well as 270 starts and 1,571 innings on his resume along with three All-Star selections. When Marmol alluded to veterans having dealt with ups and downs in their career, Gray was not exempt.
Following a strong start to his career in Oakland, he faltered under the spotlight after he was traded to the New York Yankees in the summer of 2017. He made 41 appearances for the Yankees from 2017 through 2018. That remains the only stop of his career in which he posted a record below .500 (15-16) as well as the highest ERA of any of his career (4.51) and highest walk rate (3.9 per nine innings).
In his first season after leaving New York (2019), Gray finished second in the AL Comeback Player of the Year voting.
During his introductory news conference in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, Gray repeatedly embraced the tradition as well as the expectations of playing for a Cardinals. Asked about his willingness to embrace expectation and not view it as pressure or something potentially detrimental, Gray offered a thoughtful response and acknowledged he’d spent time analyzing times in his career when he struggled and tried to learn from those instances.
“Throughout my career, I’ve been through it,†Gray said. “I’ve been through different places now, different teams, different organizations now. I’ve learned and I’ve grown so much throughout those experiences.
“The best way to learn and truly get better at things is to go through it and to experience it and come out the other side and say I’ve went through the ringer and I came out a better person. I came out a better husband. I came out a better father. I came out a better pitcher.â€
As the new ace of a Cardinals team coming off its worst season since 1990, he’ll almost certainly have lofty expectations as he steps into a leadership role this season.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in the game still,†Baldelli said. “Everyone’s eyes are on him when he takes the ball, and I think it’s going to be like that in his new home as well.â€