The St. Louis Cardinals made their biggest move yet in an effort to improve their lackluster rotation, signing AL Cy Young finalist Sonny Gray to a three-year contract on Monday to keep the team afloat.
them before next season.
John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations for the Cardinals, signed free agents Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn to one-year contracts. Mozeliak told a news conference announcing their arrival that the Cardinals weren’t done yet, saying “This is not the finish line” and “There’s still a lot of work to be done”.
Turns out the job was done for Gray, 34, who went 8-8 with a 2.79 ERA for Minnesota last season. Gray turned down qualifying offers from the Twins and St. Louis Blues. Louis will lose the second pick in next year’s amateur draft because of his signature.
The Cardinals finished last season with a record of 71 wins and 91 losses, their worst record since 1995, and the biggest reason was poor pitching. Their rotation’s ERA was 5.08, the fifth-worst in the major leagues, and when the bullpen was factored in, their ERA was 4.79, good for 24th. With only right-hander Miles Mikolas and left-hander Steven Matz under contract through 2024, the Cardinals quickly signed Lynn and Gibson in hopes of integrating the innings at the bottom of the rotation.
Lynn, 36, a two-time All-Star and member of the Cardinals’ 2011 World Series championship team, went 13-11 with the White Sox and Dodgers last season. Gibson, also 36, went 15-9 with a 4.73 ERA for AL champion East Baltimore last season. The gray color should be right at the top of the wheel.
The former A’s first-round pick spent four seasons in Oakland, struggled during the 2018 season with the New York Yankees, then had a breakthrough after being traded to the Reds in 2019. He hit a 23-20 record with a 3.89 ERA in three seasons in Cincinnati. Gray was traded to Minnesota last year, where his season was derailed by hamstring and pectoral injuries. But he bounced back with the best season of his 11-year career, finishing second to the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole in AL Cy Young voting.