Reuniting with the Cardinals could satisfy Sonny Gray's local desires

Sometime over the past decade, the St. Louis Cardinals lost their reputation as a prime destination for free agents. There are reasons abound for the team's fall from grace in that domain, but one of the pivots for the Cardinals was to seek out veteran players who grew up in the St. Louis vicinity. They've done it plenty of times on the pitching side recently, snapping up locals such as Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson and Ryne Stanek. In 2024, they did it with Sonny Gray, and three years later, the Cardinals might be wise to attempt a reunion.

Gray, who hemmed and hawed over potentially retiring after the 2026 season, has said that he wants to pitch again in 2027, but there may be one caveat to that desire. According to MLB.com's Mark Feinsand, some people within baseball believe that Gray would prefer pitching closer to his family, who resides in his home state of Tennessee, and St. Louis may fit that geographical criterion.

Gray's tenure in Boston dwarfed that of his time in St. Louis, and he is likely to receive Cy Young Award votes after his renaissance 2026 season in Beantown, where he held a 2.72 ERA. With the Cardinals, Gray had an ERA of 4.07 and a perfectly average ERA+ of 100. He was a perfectly average pitcher for St. Louis, but as a rotation anchor, he may have left a little to be desired for the Cardinals and their fans.

Bringing Gray back into the fold could be the kick that the Cardinals need to reach the postseason ahead of schedule while allowing the three-time All-Star to ride away seamlessly into the sunset once the season concludes, assuming he chooses to hang up his cleats at that point.

If Gray's 2026 revival was legitimate, he might give the Cardinals a real shot to sneak into the playoffs in 2027. But it's worth wondering how willing Gray would be to go to a team that would likely be just a fringe postseason contender at best.

Could the new-look Cardinals lure Sonny Gray back in?

The Cardinals are in a completely different situation than they were when they acquired Gray prior to the 2024 season, when former president of baseball operations John Mozeliak snapped up veterans left and right to help provide leadership for the team. As a result, there were seven players on the 2024 Cardinals who were older than Gray. But in 2027, the 37-year-old Gray would be the most senior player on the team barring the unlikely acquisition of someone even older over the offseason.

The Cardinals were doomed to fail with the creaky roster Mozeliak cobbled together in 2024, but the upstart team in 2026 appeared to be the polar opposite of that approach as one of the youngest teams in the league. As a potential elder statesman on the Cardinals if he were to return, Gray could serve as a valuable mentor to the Cardinals' plethora of younger pitchers. On a roster level, Gray's presence atop the pecking order could push erstwhile starter Matthew Liberatore to the bullpen, where he's historically performed much better than he has in the rotation.

Assuming Gray and the Red Sox don't exercise the pitcher's mutual option, Gray may come with a bit of a price tag on the open market, and the Cardinals may balk at the thought of ponying up the big bucks for a top starter. After all, new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom has admitted that the team is likely still at least two years away from truly contending, and he has spoken about how the sport tends to punish those who don't stay their charted course.

There's always a chance that Gray could take a hometown discount, but on that front, the Atlanta Braves may be a more lucrative option. As the closest team to Tennessee and still in a competitive window, the Braves might fit Gray like a glove.

It seems unlikely that the Cardinals will splurge in 2027, especially with the uncertainties of a potential lockout, so the odds are against a reunion of Gray with the Cardinals. But with so many contracts off of the books, the Cardinals have plenty of money to disburse as the front office sees fit, and they could still be on the lookout for a veteran leader with local ties.

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